“Production will stop, shipments will be frozen, and some companies may not make it”: board game industry braces for further pain after Trump threatens 130% tariffs on China

Board game companies already labouring under the pain of elevated US tariffs on China have seen their future plans thrown into chaos yet again, after President Trump threatened an imminent hike of the rate to 130%.

Trump said he plans to impose the colossal tariff rate by November 1, in retaliation to China announcing it would curb its exports of rare earth materials – vital components in everything from semiconductors and electric vehicles to jet fighters and cruise missiles.

The shock announcement threatens to reignite the trade war between the countries that rapidly escalated earlier this year, which at its height in April saw US tariffs on China reach 145%.

That figure was cut to its current rate of 30% in mid-May as the two countries engaged in talks to bring the trade war to an end – but even that lessened amount has had a heavy impact on the board game industry, much of which relies on China-based manufacturing.

The tariff hike has already seen several board game businesses shutter their operations in recent months, while others have laid off staff and been forced to hike the price of their games to cover the unexpected costs.

Trump acknowledged in an interview with Fox this morning that the 130% China tariff was “not sustainable” for the US economy – a sentiment roundly shared by the string of board game professionals who spoke to BoardGameWire in the wake of the new tariff announcement.

Renegade Game Studios founder Scott Gaeta told BoardGameWire, “Unfortunately, this administration continues to recklessly communicate policy, or the threat of policy changes through social media. It’s hard to know what to believe at any given moment.

“Needless to say, an additional 100% tariff on Chinese imports (which would put us at 130%) would be catastrophic for the tabletop game industry. At that level it might as well be 1,000%.

“Many games will not be viable. If this happens, we’ll see a repeat of what we saw in the spring. Production will stop, shipments will be frozen, and some companies may not make it. The timing is terrible as well. Q4 is a peak time for shipments. 

“Hopefully the Supreme Court upholds the rulings of two lower courts in November when they rule on the tariffs.”

Those court rulings challenge Trump’s authority to impose sweeping tariffs under emergency powers – but even if the legal challenge is successful, it will come too late for some board game publishers already having to scramble to shape their business around the potential 130% figure.

Price Johnson, the COO of Gloomhaven publisher Cephalofair Games, has been fighting hard over the past few months to raise awareness of the huge problems US tariffs are causing the board game hobby, including high-profile appearances on news outlets such as CNN.

He told BoardGameWire, “We have a product being reprinted with our manufacturer due for the completion at the end of this month.

“For the second time this year, we will be finding ourselves with inventory stuck overseas and diverting as much business internationally (EU/UK/AU/CA) rather than our US sales channels, which prior to this administration represented 70-75% of our international sales.

“In the last three months alone, we have already paid about $150,000 in import taxes receiving what minimum amount of product we could squeeze within the 90 day windows this administration provided, while having to stomach the extra 30% tariff imposed earlier this year.”

He added, “We have had to signal to our manufacturer that we will be needing long-term storage for our product current in production and intended for US import and sales.

“We are already playing catch up from the tariff volatility of this year and operating on a smaller holiday availability of product at higher prices, and limited retail/distribution capacity, so this will be a much smaller Q4 for us than it could have, and once our US inventory is gone we that will be it for the foreseeable future.”

Several publishers who spoke to BoardGameWire said they would continue to plan as if the 30% tariff rate would continue – especially those who have already imported their games into the US ready for the hugely important holiday season.

But they cautioned that the full effects of ongoing elevated tariffs would begin to show more and more in 2026, even if the rate ballooning to 130% can be avoided.

One senior executive from a well known global board game publisher, who asked to remain anonymous, told BoardGameWire, “We were already passing as much of the 30% on Chinese-made games as we could along to customers (same applies to the 10-15% from Europe) but because of price point weirdness we were forced to take some hits already.

“For example, our best-selling game went from $40 to $45, which clearly doesn’t compensate for the 30% tariff. Can we sell many of the same game for $90? Not in any meaningful volumes. And we can’t absorb much more of the additional cost, so with a 130% tariff we would have to make some dramatic changes to the way we do business in the US.

“The 30% increase is still working its way through the market and hasn’t quite fully taken effect. Our first release that was affected was our Gen Con release. I had to raise the suggested retail price (SRP) 20% and people were asking ‘You’re really charging $X for that?’

“It was a really good value at the original SRP, but the new price gave people pause, and I fear consumers don’t quite yet understand what’s around the corner.”

They added, “The 30% tariff and all of the rest of the uncertainty already hurt us. We were set to grow quite a bit but now we’ll be lucky to match last year’s revenue and profitability.

“It sucks because my employees are asking for cost of living allowances (COLAs) due to the rising cost of living, and their performance bonuses are tied to growth and profitability, so the bonuses have all but evaporated.

“I feel bad about the fact that external factors are holding them down, but if a 130% rate goes into effect, forget about COLAs and bonuses – we’re talking about jobs.”

Rose Gauntlet Entertainment co-founder Lindsey Rode, who is planning to launch new game Gone to Gaia on Kickstarter next week, said, “A small business can’t be idle and we’re moving ahead the best we can. To do anything else would be as damaging as the tariffs.”

She added, “For now we’re absorbing all of the additional tariff taxes for our products but it’s adding up quickly.

“For example, our new game Gone to Gaia has a current tariff cost of $5.67 per unit. For a print run of 5,000 that’s $28,350 in additional costs.

“That’s money that we used to use to reprint our most popular titles. We’ve had to tell our backers that if the tariff rates exceed the current 30% truce we’ll need to ask for additional help to cover the extra cost.

Eerie Idol Games founder Pablo Clark, who is in the latter stages of fulfilling his Kickstarter for The Old King’s Crown, said, “Since we were in the middle of manufacturing when the first tariff escalations began earlier in 2025, we couldn’t (and fiercely did not want to) charge the original backers more money to cover the tariffs.

“So, in the end, for every copy that was shipped to the US, we ate the tariff cost so to speak, resulting in us paying an additional 30% on top of the original manufacturing for those units.

“We were able to absorb that cost, others were not so lucky. The speed and volatility that surrounded those events meant that certain companies delivered into the jaws of a tariff running at 100% or more. In many cases this was financially devastating.

“In the short term, if the tariffs jump to 100%, for example, it won’t affect us as our first print run is complete and we’re not moving goods into the US right at this moment.

“However, we have a follow up campaign scheduled for March 2026, running on Gamefound, which will allow us to produce a second printing of The Old King’s Crown amongst other things, and this potential reescalation of tensions and tariffs could absolutely impact that campaign.

“…How much of that cost are we able to absorb without hurting or destroying the company? How much are board gamers over there able to absorb in price hikes? What will this mean for retailers’ ability to buy the game from distributors, when a tariff of that scale would force them to drive prices up, and likely profits down, as they fight to keep the product sustainably priced and sufficiently stocked?

“We want the game to be accessible and fairly priced. We want the game to be played and enjoyed, so the dilemma becomes how do we keep the door to the US open and at what cost are we able to shoulder that?”

The impacts are likely to be felt within the industry far more widely than just increased game prices and publisher job losses – with board game conventions likely to begin feeling the repercussions of tighter publisher budgets, despite having managed to seemingly avoid much in the way of tariff impact so far.

The anonymous executive told BoardGameWire, “PAX [Unplugged, in November] is already planned, the money’s spent. But every event we do in 2026 was already being re-evaluated and this pretty much solidifies a scaled back approach to events next year. It just doesn’t make sense to invest in events right now.”

That view was echoed by Rose Gauntlet’s Rode, who said, “We’ve decided not to attend PAXU due to this year’s tariff burden. We still plan to attend Gen Con next year but all other shows are up in the air due to the tariffs.”

Cephalofair’s Price Johnson had similar views, adding, “While we will be attending Essen and PAXU, it will be in limited capacity and without some core products or most of our team.

“We are looking to drastically cut back on the number of trade shows we do in 2026 both due to the inability to plan for new releases, reprints, and loss profits in 2025 due to lost planning/revenue due to unstable import tax rates.”

The tariffs are also already having an impact on the types of board games being developed. Earlier this year CMON, which was already foundering under a severe revenue slump before engaging in mass layoffs and halting new game development around the April tariff war, said it had pivoted to releasing several small-box games direct to retail rather than focusing on the large scale, miniatures heavy crowdfunding campaigns that had been the hallmark of the business.

T Caires, a director at Sky Team publisher Hachette Boardgames USA, told BoardGameWire, “The US market cannot take much more in regards to price increases so instead we are pivoting to products that are cheaper and less involved as needed.

“For our best-selling games that are now essentially priced out of the market, we are sadly having to just reduce forecasts of those items.”

They added, “We’ve already greatly reduced our 2026 release plans and forecast due to the unstable nature of the US importation network.

“The US consumer market is showing strain and loss of confidence for purchasing luxury or hobby items, and so we’ve already adjusted our forecasts and targets to reflect that. More tariffs just means more uncertainty.”