Despite Having 10+ Crowdfunds Unfulfilled, CMON Blames Tariffs For Layoffs And Pause Of New Game Development
CMON has consistently shown they have some of the worst business practices in the board game industry. Now, they’re announcing pausing the development of all games and blaming Donald Trump and tariffs when their company has already been failing well before tariffs fell into place.
Ever since Donald Trumps announced tariffs against China, the board game industry has been using them as an excuse to cover for long-time bad business practices that have plagued the market. We’ve seen the likes of CMON designer Eric Lang throwing fits at other creators over the tariffs, Steve Jackson Games CEO quitting amid turmoil, and Bordlandia closing its doors.
What all of these situations had in common was these companies had problems well before tariffs were hitting. CMON has been notorious for using big crowdfunds to fund the last big crowdfund, already in a situation where they’ve been bleeding money and reporting financial distress. Steve Jackson Games similarly faced problems as they’ve focused on DEI rather than their core gaming. Bordlandia admitted they had been struggling and using their savings to fund their unprofitable business for some time before making this decision.
Tariffs represent a convenient excuse for this extreme leftist industry to virtue signal rather than get their houses in order, and now CMON is going a step further and announcing they’re shutting down all game development, once again blaming tariffs rather than self-reflecting.
CMON has 10 open crowdfunds they’ve yet to deliver on—that’s right, 10. Those crowdfunds raised over $22 million over the last couple of years, at which there was time to produce and deliver that had nothing to do with tariffs. With those kind of funds and selling direct-to-customer without having to do deep discounts for distribution, one would think they’d be swimming in capital.
However, the situation is far worse than one could imagine. They posted to their blog:
Our CMON community means a lot to us, so we felt it was important to share with you some difficult decisions at our company today. Given global conditions, and most notably the situation with tariffs, CMON has decided to focus on our current commitments to our customers and partners, and prioritize the timely delivery of existing projects. So effective immediately, we will be pausing all future game development and new crowdfunding campaigns until trade conditions have stabilized.
Unfortunately, this involves extremely difficult staffing decisions, affecting all of our creative teams with reductions. We did not make this choice lightly, and our thoughts are with everyone impacted. We are incredibly grateful for their roles in our success over the years, and these talented people will be missed both professionally and personally.
The industry continues to rapidly evolve, and unpredictable situations like the recent tariffs, or COVID just a few years ago, present challenges for everyone in board games. With that said, it is our responsibility to take these difficult measures to ensure that we can keep current projects on track and deliver them in a timely manner. We will of course resume new development as soon as possible.
Please rest assured that these decisions will help ensure that we keep our commitments to our backers, partners, and community.
As much as they blamed trade conditions, opening double digits of crowdfunds, raising that money, and not delivering is the real problem with the company. Kickstarter used to have rules against this kind of situation, and CMON was always in violation of it, though they never were called on it because of their mainstream industry privilege. With their moving to sites like Gamefound for crowdfunding, CMON has circumvented any responsibility to their customers.
Now, it’s clear the business is in trouble, and tariffs have little to do with it. Will CMON fulfill their current customer obligations before going out of business? Leave a comment and let us know.
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