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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - APRIL 04: A general view of shipping containers in the port of Melbourne on ...
More April 04, 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. Australian beef exports to the U.S.
are now subject to a 10% tariff under President Trump's "Liberation Day" trade measures, potentially costing American consumers an additional $180 million annually. While Australian farmers remain optimistic about strong global demand for their high-quality product, industry leaders warn that the tariffs could disrupt supply chains and reduce competitiveness in the U.S.
market, which accounted for $4 billion worth of beef exports last year. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese criticized the move as "not the act of a friend," emphasizing Australia's commitment to maintaining biosecurity standards and exploring alternative markets to mitigate the impact. (Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images) The shock of the President Trump tariffs still vibrates through the world.
Industries big and small are coming to grips with a strange new reality in real time. I’ve been covering the tabletop games industry for six years here and nothing has hit games makers of all sizes harder than this announcement. I spoke with several CEOs, freelance creators and other members of the tabletop gaming industry late last week about how the tariffs might affect them.
I was met with all sorts of negative emotions ranging from fear to despair to outright anger during these discussions. The quotes used in this article are a small sample of the people who wished to speak on the record about how these tariffs might impact their businesses, industry and their lives. “These tariffs will hurt the gaming industry at almost every level,” said Loren Coleman, CEO of Catalyst Game Labs.
“Prices will have to be raised, punishing the gaming community for no fault of theirs. Sales will slow, hurting stores and distribution. Large publishers will be forced to lay off staff and reduce their annual plans.
Small publishers, where so much of our innovation comes from, will scale back or go out of business.” “The tax on imports means anything printed gets more expensive,” said Wolfgang Baur, CEO of Kobold Press. “That will affect all new releases, anything currently in preorder or on press.
So, if the book is not out yet, expect the MSRP [Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price] Some companies have taken to their own websites to discuss how the tariffs threated their current state of business. Steve Jackson Games , Stonemaier Games , Chaosium and Rowan, Rook and Decard were among many companies that posted a look at how the tariffs could affect not just games in production but future products as well. The same can be said for several products that were recently crowdfunded.
FEATURED | Frase By Forbes TM Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder “It takes months to properly crowdfund, and we just finished one!” said Rick Heinz, founder of Storyteller’s Forge . “Try as we might to predict the wrecking ball of chaos that is tariffs, a 56% increase on production goods, translating to nearly 20% cost of goods, on an industry with barely any margin for error after passing your goal is like hammering rusted nails through your thigh. Our path forward as someone straddling this, is either run a second campaign in the hopes of getting a larger print run or praying to the social media gods for a viral uptick.
We can’t really pass the cost to our supporters and cancelling it would probably kill a young company--so our only path forward is to push a little harder. But that also means taking future projects off the plate until we can safely fill the current campaign. What’s that in non-corporate speak? Basically it means that our creatives fill the pinch because there is less freelance work available because the entire engine is grinding to a damn halt.
We can’t pre-invest into the next project, until we can safely close out current ones. Which will begin a vicious snowball effect.” Many I spoke to cited a dearth of local infrastructure to take up the burden of printing these products.
Domestic factories lack the experience and capaicity to handle the size of some orders. Those plants that are acceptable alternatives will likely price out smaller companies because of an increased workload. “If we could manufacture our board games in the US (and at a rate that didn’t completely erase our profit margins),” said Gwen Ruelle, co-owner of Runaway Parade Games.
“we would have switched to manufacturing in the States long ago. Instead, we are left choosing between higher prices and fewer sales, or giving up on our products entirely. The uncertainty and inability to plan ahead is especially difficult.
Manufacturing often takes 4-6 months, or more. What if we start a project and then get stuck paying even higher tariffs when our products reach port 6 months from now?” Game producing companies are not the only busniesses potentially affected by the tariffs. Conventions are wrestling with higher costs and international attendees reevaluating whether or not to travel to the US.
Crowdfunding projects that were looking to launch soon have to take a look at how these tariffs might alter funding goals or render the project too risky to try. "Even if the tariffs vanish tomorrow," said James Lowder, freelance writer and crowdfunding consultant, “the damage has been done. They’ve already led to publishers scaling back schedules and cancelling projects.
Individual creators, who have faced declining wages for years because of razor-thin margins and increasing production costs, are suddenly finding their options further limited in a recklessly blighted market. Make no mistake: This unhinged economic gamesmanship will prevent many brilliant creations from reaching their full potential audience, if they see publication at all. The toll on the careers and lives of the industry’s talented designers, writers, artists, and publishing professionals will be far more brutal.
” "This newly launched trade war is going to give us all a painful reminder and lesson as to exactly how complicated of an interconnected web our global economy is," said Alex Kammerer, Director of GameHole Con. “The obvious irony is that conservatives have been pushing globalization since the 80s. Well, here is just one example of the countless ripple effects this all will have.
As we do each year, we will be ordering some new signage for Gamehole Con 2025. I was informed by my printer and sign producer that the majority of the aluminum consumed in the country comes from Canada. Well, aluminum is a key component to all ceiling hanging banners and pop-up signs.
They recommended ordering my new signs ASAP to try and get in front of the steep price increase that we will be seeing soon. This is just one tiny example. This is going to be rough.
” Some industry members expressed a relief that certain game components are covered by an exemption released by the White House . This appears to include books and other game accessories. At this time, it remains unclear if those aspects of tabletop games won’t be subject to the Trump tariffs or if that might change in the near future.
“I am in the midst of a print run with my publisher for ZWEIHANDER RPG: Reforged Edition in China," said Daniel D. Fox, creator of ZWEIHANDER RPG: Reforged Edition. "It includes the books, the collector’s edition, cards, GM screens, and dice.
Paying an exorbitant 54% tariff against landed cost is excruciating. While books, coins, and cards may not be included in the tariff other parts of the game are. And there’s no telling what direction the winds will shift within the Trump presidency that will change what is tariffed and what is not.
” “The worst part is how things keep changing,” said Matt Forbeck, designer of the Marvel Multiverse Role Playing Game . “You can plan for stability. You can even figure in a reasonable rate of inflation over the course of developing a game.
But it’s nearly impossible to produce games when you don’t know how the costs of making it is going to be from one week to the next.” “Besides the chaos of trying to deal with this sudden tariff on existing products coming into the US,” said Heather O’Neill, CEO of 9th Level Games, “I worry about how I can plan for the future. What will the tariff be next year, how much buying power do consumers have, what will be the state of things by the time a new product releases?” “We produce books in Europe, our resin miniatures in the UK, but a lot of our board games and plastic miniatures in China,” said Samantha Webb, head of brand at Modiphius, “which has seen the highest tariff increase to 54%.
We can't comment right now on if our prices may increase, as we're still looking at our product budget lines and waiting to see what the final tariffs settle at before making any long-term decisions.” The future of the industry under these tariffs will also shift what sorts of games will be produced. Game companies will likely stick with known hits and recognizable IP over taking a risk on something new.
Creators and fans alike will be less likely to take a risk on crowdfunding. “If tariffs stay in place and stay stable,” said Anne-Marie De Witt, CEO/Co-founder of Fireside Games, “then I think we’ll see simpler, fewer games with fewer deluxe components being published at higher but attainable prices. Consumers of medium- and heavy-weight games will likely slow down on purchases of new titles with higher prices and purchase older titles or play through their backlog of games.
We’ll also likely see cash-poor companies folding. I doubt we’ll see large scale board game manufacturing start in the U.S.
unless the tariffs reach 400%, which is about how much more the U.S. bids we’ve received are compared to the bids from Chinese factories.
And that’s for games with no plastic or deluxe pieces. This is a catastrophic change to the board game industry. It’s hard to predict exactly what might happen, but whatever it is, it won’t be healthy for the industry or good for consumers.
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