The fallout from the current situation in the United States government continues to land on a variety of industries, but the tariffs have had an outsized impact on the tabletop market. Wingspan publisher, Stonemaier Games, is the latest Tabletop publisher to speak out about a very costly situation for their industry.
The latest action comes from Stonemaier Games, the publisher of Wingspan, Scythe, and many others, as they announced that they are going to be part of a lawsuit against the US President over his tariff usage. Jamey Stegmaier, the founder and CEO of Stonemaier Games explains why they are taking this action some in his announcement post:
We will not stand idly by while our livelihoods–and the livelihoods of thousands of small business owners and contractors in the US, along with the customers whose pursuit of happiness we hold dear–are treated like pawns in a political game.
Like many tabletop publishers (import code 9504.90.6000*), we started print runs of products before the President took office, and now we face an unprecedented $14.50 tariff tax for every $10 we spent on manufacturing with our trusted long-term partner in China. For Stonemaier Games alone (a US based company in which all 8 employees are US citizens), that amounts to upcoming tariff payments of nearly $1.5 million.
In the comments he explains that the lawsuit will be filed later this week, and features claimants from across a number of industries who have been directly impacted by the tariffs. They are focused on the President unilaterally creating these tariffs. These aren’t the only actions that Stonemaier games is taking, as they also are focusing on sales to other regions, storing games in China with hopes the tariffs will go down, direct selling their newest game Vantage, and are in some cases sending restocks of released games and eating the costs, which they can do due to a buffer they have.
With limited to non-existent production capability in the US for various tabletop games, the industry has been hammered by the 145% tariffs. Many of the games you love are manufactured in China due to lower costs, and the fact that very few in the US have the ability to make the products desired. This has caused some companies like Greater Than Games to shut down due to the tariffs.
Stay tuned to TechRaptor for more on this developing situation.
