Bohnanza, 6 Nimmt publisher Amigo Spiele shutters US operation after eight years, saying tariff uncertainty was the ‘final impetus’

Amigo Spiele, the veteran German board game publisher of titles such as Bohnanza and 6 Nimmt!, is shuttering its US arm after eight years after struggling to overcome the double impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the current tariffs volatility.

The US operation, called Amigo Games, will close at the end of the year “due to the ongoing economic challenges since the coronavirus pandemic”, Amigo Spiele said.

That decision comes despite Amigo Games being one of the few hobby board game publishers that managed to diversify some of its manufacturing away from China – one of the countries which has been hit the heaviest by recent US tariffs.

Late last year Amigo Games arranged for some of its titles, including flagship games such as Bohnanza and No Thanks!, to be manufactured in the US through a tie-up with Cartamundi North America.

Amigo Games COO Alex Yeager said at the time, “We hope that making this commitment to US manufacturing can provide an example that other companies could examine and potentially mirror.”

“It’s not an easy decision for us, but it’s the right one,” said Alexander Jost, Managing Director of Amigo Spiel + Freizeit in Germany, of the decision to close Amigo Games.

“After eight years of intensive efforts, we have to admit that we cannot meet the economic challenges of the American market with our small company.

“We would like to express our sincere thanks to the Amigo Games team, Alex Yeager and Corey Delmonto, for their tireless efforts.”

Yeager, who previously spent more than a decade with Mayfair Games, led Amigo Games as COO from 2021, while Delmonto joined as sales director in late 2020.

Yeager told BoardGameWire, “Corey and I have had a chance to prepare for this, and AMIGO Spiele has been outstanding partners as we approached this announcement.

“This had less to do with tariffs in a practical way, and more the decision that the uncertainty in the US market, for the foreseeable future, will be chaotic enough that the work of planning for a series of ‘worst case scenarios’ outweighs the existing business.

“Late last year, we reacted to the potential disruptions by reducing our 2025 line, getting all but one of our games into our US warehouse by the end of January, and publishing our final game this year in the US.

“Even this had its problems – for example, our Canadian distributors would not buy US-made games because of the reciprocal tariffs.

“For a company that works in many countries around the world, our synergies of co-publication were being stifled by economic policies. 

“Amigo has a very successful and experienced licensing and export department, and our games will transition to the pre-2018 model.

“We are proud of the achievements we have made in the US market, and we’re confident that our games will continue to be available with future licensees.”

Amigo owner Uwe Pauli launched the company’s US arm in 2018, with the goal of expanding Amigo’s products in the American market with a dedicated office and local market experts.

The business was rocked by the Covid-19 pandemic less than two years later, however, and in the wake of that the company said it focused on “increasing awareness of its game series and reducing operating costs”.

Amigo said that while there were successes in its transatlantic gambit, such as the relaunch of the Bohnanza series in the US and new long-running titles like Lama and Cabanga!, the “constantly changing situation with rising shipping and component costs presented the company with challenges in implementing these goals”.

A statement from Amigo said, “In the past twelve months, uncertainty has increased even further. This year’s tariff dispute with the US, the lack of predictability, and significant additional costs gave the Amigo management the final impetus to reluctantly decide to close Amigo Games.”

Speaking of his time at Amigo, Delmonto shared the following anecdote with BoardGameWire.

He said, “During my first Essen with Amigo in 2021 I found an old copy of Uno that was published by Amigo at a vendor in the hall.

“I purchased it and brought it back to the AMIGO Spiel booth and several people in the booth remembered working on it in the early 90s. Now they didn’t find it as funny as I did when I said it was almost as old as I was, but that was the moment I realized just how special Amigo was. 

“There were people still there committed to bringing out the best card games almost 30 years later. No matter where I go next, that copy of Uno will always be on my game shelf.”

BoardGameWire reported early last year that Amigo Spiele had named two new managing directors, laying the groundwork for a future beyond veteran company head Uwe Pauli – the man who helped save the German board game maker from financial peril in the early 1990s.

Pauli, who had largely withdrawn from day-to-day business at Amigo in recent years, spent more than 30 years as sole managing director, having turned the business around after the company lost the rights to card game Uno amid the takeover of International Games by Mattel.