Want A Cheap Board Game Night? No Dice. Publishers Are Raising Prices, Limiting Production

Trump tariffs are leaving Black beauty businesses in peril

Black beauty salons and wholesalers have been hit hard by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

• Board game publishers are facing increased costs due to tariffs on countries like China.
• These costs are leading to price increases for consumers and fewer new games being developed.
• Some publishers have cut staff or halted production altogether due to the financial strain.

Nathan McNair, co-owner of board game and card game publisher Pandasaurus, has spent much of this year crunching numbers.

His company, known for titles like The Mind and Castle Combo, was charged roughly $90,000 in tariff fees so far this year. Meanwhile, a weakening U.S. dollar has made importing shipments from manufacturers in Europe and China more costly.

That's left McNair scrambling to figure out how to make up for the unexpected expenses.

“We're not a huge business. That's a lot of money for us,” McNair said. “That's money I don't have to hire people, or to spend on marketing, spend on artwork or development on new titles or reprinting existing titles.” 

The end result for Pandasaurus customers? A 10% to 15% price hike across games, and fewer new games in the pipeline as the company tightens its budget. McNair said Pandasaurus typically develops four to six new games per year; in 2025, it's down to two.  

Similar decisions have been made across the industry, which relies heavily on manufacturers based in China to produce the intricate wood and plastic pieces board games depend on. Some publishers have cut staff. Others have halted production completely.  

“It’s making taking risks harder,” McNair said of tariffs. "We had to look at (pausing) games with a higher dollar amount, so the tariff would be bigger, and we had to look at (publishing) games where we felt they were sure things and taking less risk. Which of course means less creativity, less new ideas.” 

President Donald Trump's tariffs come shortly after the industry found its footing in the United States, according to Greg Loring-Albright, assistant professor of game studies and design at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology in Pennsylvania and a freelance game designer. While the hobby game industry has long had a strong presence in Europe, especially Germany, he said the U.S. industry didn't truly take off until the 2000s and 2010s, fueled in part by crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter.  

By the 2020s, the industry "was in this golden age" and "definitely competing and comparable" to Europe, Loring-Albright said. The U.S. industry's market size hit $4.58 billion in 2024, according to research firm Imarc Group, and is expected to reach $11.73 billion by 2033. 

But the industry has stumbled in recent months as publishers grapple with higher import costs.  

Prescott, Arizona-based indie board game publisher Bitewing Games had to adjust production plans to pay roughly $40,000 in tariff fees this year, according to co-founder and manager Nick Murray. 

“When margins are already slim, that really hurts us,” Murray said, adding that he had to trim his paycheck to less than $4 per hour earlier this year to make ends meet.  

Bitewing, like many other board game makers, relies on factories in China, and faces a 30% tariff rate amid ongoing tariff negotiations. It’s unclear whether that rate will change in the coming months; the extended tariff truce between China and the White House is set to expire in November.  

The Trump administration has painted tariffs as a tool to boost U.S. manufacturing. But Murray said shifting production to the United States isn’t an easy alternative for the board game industry. There are few domestic board game manufacturing facilities, he said, and those that are present tend to focus on paper products like cards and boxes, whereas manufacturers in China can produce more complex wood and plastic components at a much lower cost – even with a 30% tariff in effect.  

“The cost difference is just not even close,” Murray said. “There’s nobody else in the world who has the equipment, the expertise, the capabilities to manufacture board games like China.” 

Companies that do shift production may be more willing to move operations to countries outside the United States; Panda Game Manufacturing, a Vancouver, Canada-based board game manufacturer operating in Shenzhen, China, in June announced plans to launch a new “tariff-friendly production base” in Brazil.  

Unexpected tariff fees have put many board game makers in a tough spot, especially those that use crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter.  

The platforms, which allow backers to fund a board game project in exchange for a future copy of the game, have been a significant source of revenue for publishers. Alex Wolf, owner of Omaha, Nebraska-based Spielcraft Games, said roughly 90% of his company’s income comes from crowdfunding sites. 

But the introduction of tariffs means some publishers are on the hook for paying higher fees to import games promised to crowdfunding backers months prior.

Some companies are asking backers to pay a surcharge to help cover the cost. Others, like Spielcraft, have been eating the fee. Wolf said he paid roughly $6,000 this year to import games promised to backers months prior, a “pretty painful” dollar figure for the one-man business. With margins already thin, Wolf said he failed to turn a profit on those sales.  

“I'm really just relying on my savings to keep doubling down on the risk of keeping my business open,” he said.  

Wolf – who has joined other board game companies in a lawsuit arguing Trump's tariffs are “unlawful and unconstitutional” – is relying on an October Kickstarter campaign to get back in the black this year. Future campaigns, he said, will have tariff fees built into the price. 

“Given how unpredictable this cost increase is, it’s basically impossible to plan for," Wolf said. "A lot of people are asking, 'What do I do? Do I keep doing business?’”  

Greater Than Games, a St. Louis-based tabletop game publisher behind games like Spirit Island, in April said it reduced its staff and suspended all new projects due to tariffs. Owner Flat River Group did not respond to a request for comment.  

“It's not like Hasbro, it’s not a huge company. But within the hobby (game community) they've been a long-running, well-respected publisher,” Loring-Albright said. “They were a leader in the 2010s U.S. scene. They were one of the big names to go to if you were a hobby game designer." 

McNair said Pandasaurus is holding off on backfilling a job after an employee left early this year, and has seen “a lot of friends” in the industry lose jobs over the last six months. He expects freelancers will also have a hard time finding work as more companies pull back on new productions. 

While chaos within the industry has settled into a “new normal” in recent months, especially after tariff rates on China dropped from 145% to 30%, McNair said he still worries about the future of the industry. 

“We’re a luxury item. We’re a pretty cheap entertainment-per-hour product, but we're not a staple,” he said. “Consumer spending holding up so far has been a lifeline. If that were to drop on top of this, a lot of these little cottage industries could wind up in a death spiral. “