US President Donald Trump‘s tariffs have certainly had an unexpected impact on the video game industry, particularly for physical products like consoles. With that said, it appears tabletop games have been hit more dramatically, with manufacturing costs soaring as high as 104 percent, leading many indie and corporate board game publishers to a sudden financial struggle.
The new insight on the effect of Trump’s tariffs on tabletop games came from Price Johnson, CEO of Cephalofair Games. His tabletop game company has created some of the most popular and successful games today like Gloomhaven. Johnson posted a project update on Backer Kit with an added explanation regarding the state of the tabletop game industry.
In the post, Johnson stated that in the past two months, the manufacturing costs for tabletop game materials have increased by 104 percent thanks to Trump’s tariffs. Most of this increase began spiking up dramatically as soon as April began. A board game that previously cost $10 to produce, for example, now sets the company back by $20.40.
“Speaking bluntly, our industry, our jobs, and our projects are under attack by volatile, and self-inflicted, U.S. trade policy. Our manufacturing costs in the last two months have seen an increase of 104% due to U.S. tariffs,” according to Johnson in the Backer Kit post.
Johnson further explains that board or tabletop games need to be priced five to seven times higher than the manufacturing cost to make store distribution viable. Even then, the overhead and margins would be too narrow when factoring in additional costs such as freight, warehousing, staffing, product development, royalties, reprints, and more. With the Trump tariffs in place, that profit margin is gone.
Such effects are thus devastating, and it’s not just Cephalofair Games that is affected, but the board and tabletop game industry as a whole. Some Indie publishers might just end up bankrupt eventually if the tariffs keep up. For the consumers, this could mean delays and cancellations in orders.
Businesses aren’t Fond of the Tariffs
To that end, Price Johnson and other executives in the tabletop game industry and likely the gaming industry as a whole are hoping for a reversal of the tariffs, lest wholesale businesses collapse. Even those that deal in digital goods overseas, such as CAPCOM or Bandai Namco are also affected, particularly when it comes to stock value.
Even billionaires are against Trump’s tariffs, stating they do not understand the US President’s “formula” for imposing such a tax, which will then be shouldered by businesses and customers. Others, who were “fans” and voters of Trump in the past, have also lost tens of millions in their own businesses.
Some of the more expensive tabletop games, such as Warhammer 40k, also got slapped with a 10 percent import tariff, which could further make the plastic models more expensive than they already are. The worst part is that it’s not over yet, since Trump is still planning an additional individualized tariff for each foreign country today or this week.
