How Tariffs are affecting the industries that you love (no political talk)

[iroboto]

So for me, I’ve been board gaming for the majority of my gaming time. board games have hit a golden age where we are seeing better and better games than ever produced. The design and the complexity and intelligence of these board games are so addictive, it’s hard to find a video game to compare.

That being said, these tariffs will heavily damage the board game scene, and quite possibly the entire community around it. Quite a few CCG shops, warhammer shops, and comic shops have picked up board games as an addition revenue source, but it’s all about to end.

PC gamer touches on it here

Board game publishers lament the devastating impact of new US tariffs on the tabletop industry: 'There is no silver lining. It is a lose-lose-lose situation for everyone involved'

The tabletop boom just stopped dead in its tracks.

www.pcgamer.com

Yes we can definitely write something similar for consoles and PC hardware as well. Nintendo recently paused their pre-orders in the US. We are likely to see sky high prices for PS5 and Xbox respectively.

What’s painfully obvious in all of these articles is that despite the desire to move manufacturing back to the US, everything else is just not ready for it.

"I've gotten quotes," says the Steve Jackson Games statement. "I've talked to factories. Even when the willingness is there, the equipment, labor, and timelines simply aren't." Stonemaier Games even links to a specific case study—the recent efforts of a start-up called Quimbley's Toys & Games that describes its ultimately failed attempt to produce games on US soil as "digging our grave".


That's echoed by Justin Jacobson of Restoration Games, speaking with BoardGameGeek: "Most folks don't realize that it is literally impossible to manufacture most hobby games in the US, even if you didn't care about reducing profit. I mean literally impossible."

I haven’t even touched on Warhammer. That’s going to be a tough one for them. I wish them well.

The long story short, looks like board games will need to go digital.

 

[Albuquerque]

I own a "playtoy" car, a 2009 Mazda Miata Touring, which I've extensively modified in my ten years of ownership. And while it doesn't need a whole lot in terms of upkeep, any discrete parts have suddenly become notably more expensive in the past few weeks. Bluntly, they've been unreasonably increasing in price ever since COVID, however a sharp yet equally large spike has occurred in the more recent weeks.

Also, while I haven't gone shopping recently, I suspect most of the filaments I would purchase for my 3D printer are likely to have also taken a price hike. Good news is, each little printed "thing" I typically create runs in the dozens of cents (or less) in materials. Nevertheless, buying a spool for what was $20 only a few months ago is likely be almost $30 these days...

 

[iroboto]

Yea 3D printing might save the hobby people for warhammer. But the IP is going to go stagnant if things don’t reverse course

 

[arandomguy]

I haven’t even touched on Warhammer. That’s going to be a tough one for them. I wish them well.

I won't pretend to be an expert here since I'm not super into this hobby but some of this just seems like misdirection and woe is me from businesses. Like Games Workshop (Warhammer) crying poor and trying to draw sympathy about this? My understanding was always the pricing was based on the value of the IP and margins on the actual goods was extremely high. A brief search shows something like 70% margins on the actual manufacturing of products for Games Workshop.

Also doing a search it shows discussions that 3D printing Warhammer figures themselves just at home is cheaper than buying from Games Workshop in terms of actual individual costs not factoring the initial outlay for equipment. So I'm bit skeptical that it's impossible if you really didn't care about profit.

 

[Davros]

The long story short, looks like board games will need to go digital.

Note: the world comprises places that are not America

 

[AlphaWolf]

Note: the world comprises places that are not America

Many of these products will not survive without the US. If the US isn't buying the price will go up for everyone else because of economies of scale.

 

[iroboto]

Note: the world comprises places that are not America

I agree. But if your market for selling is compromised of 50% of America. Then say you need to sell 10K units at 70US to make X amount. If you now sell near 0 in US. You may no longer be able to break even.