“We hope these bets will pay off”: Ares signs two US distribution deals despite ongoing trade war with China

War of the Ring publisher Ares Games has signed a pair of new US distribution deals, with director of production Roberto Di Meglio saying the company hopes to prove “there is still life for our industry during the trade war”.

Ares, which is based in Italy but specialises in producing English editions of games, has agreed to distribute titles from fellow Italian publisher Tabula Games and Czech-based Albi – the former into English-speaking markets, and the latter globally outside of Europe.

Di Meglio told BoardGameWire last month that his gut reaction was that “the board game industry in the USA will be killed by these tariffs”, after US president Donald Trump hiked import charges on goods from China to 54%.

Those tariffs quickly rose to 145% amid an ongoing trade war with China, which has raised its own tariffs on US goods to 125% – a catastrophic situation for many board game publishers, who are largely reliant on Chinese manufacturing for their games.

But speaking about the new partnerships, Di Meglio said the agreement with Albi was predicated on that company being willing to accept higher risk – and lower margins – for their upcoming rally game Dirt & Dust – a design from Kutná Hora co-creator Petr Čáslava which blends deckbuilding and dice placement.

Albi is one of the biggest domestic manufacturers of board games, greeting cards, gift items and gift wrappings in the Czech Republic, with a tabletop portfolio that includes titles such as Karak and Tea Garden.

Other games published by Albi include Severton, a Vlaada Chvátil co-op game based on mystery-solving Czech comic book and novel series The Rapid Arrows, and Uwe Rosenberg tile-laying game Garden Lake.

For Tabula, which has a string of crowdfunding successes under its belt, Di Meglio said the distribution agreement had been a “fortunate combination”, as Tabula had already imported games to the US ahead of the tariffs being introduced, but needed a partner to distribute the titles.

He told BoardGameWire that Ares would begin distributing area control and hand management eurogame Mysthea, and the deck building card game Volfyirion Guilds, from July, and would look to roll out the rest of Tabula’s catalogue in the second half of the year.

That includes engine territory building and resource management game Icaion, worker placement game Ryozen, strategic eurogame Sons of Faeriell and hand management card game Sanctuary: The Keepers Era.

Ares will also distribute The Last Spell: The Board Game, a tabletop adaptation of video game The Last Spell, which raised more than €380,000 on Kickstarter in June 2023.

Di Meglio told BoardGameWire, “Tabula approached us because they make great games, and they did very successful crowdfunding campaigns with them, but these games barely reached retail distribution until now. We met the Tabula team a few times in the past, and the idea of working together to expand their distribution was ‘in the air’ for quite a long time.

“When a few months ago they reached out to us to discuss it again, we were very happy for the opportunity and immediately started to work together on the launch, which will begin with Gen Con.

“Certainly future distribution agreement (or the US distribution of specific products) can be affected. It is our intention to continue developing the English language distribution for Ares with an increased focus on the other English-speaking countries around the world.

“We are trying to keep a presence in the USA market as well, however, with a combination of reduced inventories, increased prices, product selection, and developing our direct sales to make up for the loss of profit through the traditional distribution tiers (which we want to continue to service).

“Currently, the USA market is very important for Ares – directly, it’s about one third of our global business, and we also have our main distribution center in the USA, servicing our sales worldwide.

“Under the current tariffs, we need to make the USA distribution hub strictly local, and change our commercial and marketing strategies, but we will do our best to weather the storm and survive the current ‘trade war’.”

He added, “As a publisher and distributor, we hope that these bets will pay off, and I really hope that we can show that there is still life for our industry during the trade war (albeit a much, much harder life, just like in a real war).”

Earlier this year Ares agreed a deal with Armenian publisher Red Cat Games – the successor studio to Russia’s Lifestyle Boardgames – to bring two of its games to the English language market.

Ares is publishing two-player 3D apartment block builder Balconia and casual word association game Perfect Mismatch this year, after being impressed by the titles at the Nuremberg Toy Fair last year.

Other Ares releases expected this year include Quartermaster General South Front, Sword & Sorcery: Abyssal Legends and Viking Route.