Tabletop gaming is in an absolute panic over President Trump’s tariffs, and now the leftist virtue-signaling Steve Jackson Games has issued a statement as they admit they’ve been using Chinese slave labor for the production of their games.
Steve Jackson made some pretty good games, some of which are still available. He makes pretty poor political takes when he steps out of the game design lane. Ho hum.
Solutions abound in the game world. There are plenty of American sources for paper, printers, and distributors, and they don't have tariffs to worry about. It's rough that many people are getting caught in the middle of this back and forth at this time. But, it's indicative of what FP has pointed out, that the real deal business people are not wasting time complaining about the situation, but rather looking for solutions for their business and their customers. I wish those folks the very best and hope they tough this out until things get better for them.
If Steve Jackson Games decides to give up, then I guess they give up. It's not like SJG is the only company with game ideas and plans to satisfy customer demand.
As someone that has done a few stints in the card and board game industry, it was so frustrating to listen to “the experts” in the industry telling anyone new that came into this space (going back to 2010), that we had to go to China for basically everything. Then they doubled down on shaming anyone that questioned them or their politics. This situation needed to happen decades ago, so of course it’s going to hurt for awhile, but it’s crazy to think this was going to be sustainable into the future. The cost benefits have been decreasing in value anyways with long ship times from China, lost shipments, damage shipments, and their holiday shutdowns as well as the 2020-22 shutdowns or delays would seriously screw up the launches of crowdfunded campaigns The industry leaders should have actually “lead” for change instead of doubling down over and over again for cheap slave labor and maximized margins from China. Arguably, they are just as guilty for the pain of this situation for not fighting for a way to improve or create competitive options for manufacturing of games here in the States.
It was real when outsourcing picked up, and you either joined or got outcompeted by those who did. It's rough now, for all of the reasons SJG cites. It's entirely possible for a company to want NEITHER shift; what they want is stability. But the "stability" of the present system will destroy us, so it has to change.
I get that it sucks. I might have more sympathy if the cancel pigs ever considered the instability they put into our systems on purpose. They didn't, and don't, so I don't. I do wish /ourguys/ the best; fortunately, the enemy trained us to be more resilient.
Additionally, we know who supports us, so our extra cash will likely go to ensuring that it's those folks who weather the storm, rather than companies like SJG.
There's no national plan because we're not a communist country. Maybe if you hadn't all been so fast to offshore everything for what were minimal gains back then, you wouldn't be fucked now.
You reap what you sow.
So bite the bullet and start working on getting it done here. I'm sure you can get it done a lot cheaper than you think.
There you go. Those of you with an entrepreneurial bent, here is a need to fill. America needs you to build dice, counters, miniatures...
Granted, at first they will claim that it's TOO EXPENSIVE. They are going to have to be weaned off the cheap Chinese labor and materials. RPGs sold perfectly well before China was opened to manufacturing.
While I prefer that game companies prosper, I confess to a certain amount of "oh no, anyway" when so much poignant whining comes from the folks who repeatedly put out special bundles "to support trans rights", or openly racist games, or just in general heap scorn on most of the things I appreciate and believe. Most of the gaming industry has burned through a lot of sympathy I might have for their difficulties in dealing with the real world.
SJG wants its cake and to eat it, too. American companies *can* do many things, given sufficient reason. They've learned not to jump in with both feet when some desperate calls come in. Reason being that, for a few dollars, the desperate client begging for help will leave you high & dry.
I very, very rarely comment on this sort of stuff, but as a long-time small business owner that had to deal with changes in per-unit origin costs, logistics changes, etc. fairly routinely I do not understand how the SJG model turns a $1.62 per unit increase in origin costs into a +$15 retail price. The tariffs are not impacting shipping costs (oil price decreases might lower that, actually) or warehousing costs. They don't need to hire more staff.
No, I was not in the board game industry, I was in IT equipment, but I would need a lot more detail to grasp how the price would need to change more than about $2.50 per unit to maintain the same profit margin.
Steve Jackson made some pretty good games, some of which are still available. He makes pretty poor political takes when he steps out of the game design lane. Ho hum.
Solutions abound in the game world. There are plenty of American sources for paper, printers, and distributors, and they don't have tariffs to worry about. It's rough that many people are getting caught in the middle of this back and forth at this time. But, it's indicative of what FP has pointed out, that the real deal business people are not wasting time complaining about the situation, but rather looking for solutions for their business and their customers. I wish those folks the very best and hope they tough this out until things get better for them.
If Steve Jackson Games decides to give up, then I guess they give up. It's not like SJG is the only company with game ideas and plans to satisfy customer demand.
As someone that has done a few stints in the card and board game industry, it was so frustrating to listen to “the experts” in the industry telling anyone new that came into this space (going back to 2010), that we had to go to China for basically everything. Then they doubled down on shaming anyone that questioned them or their politics. This situation needed to happen decades ago, so of course it’s going to hurt for awhile, but it’s crazy to think this was going to be sustainable into the future. The cost benefits have been decreasing in value anyways with long ship times from China, lost shipments, damage shipments, and their holiday shutdowns as well as the 2020-22 shutdowns or delays would seriously screw up the launches of crowdfunded campaigns The industry leaders should have actually “lead” for change instead of doubling down over and over again for cheap slave labor and maximized margins from China. Arguably, they are just as guilty for the pain of this situation for not fighting for a way to improve or create competitive options for manufacturing of games here in the States.
The damage is real.
It was real when outsourcing picked up, and you either joined or got outcompeted by those who did. It's rough now, for all of the reasons SJG cites. It's entirely possible for a company to want NEITHER shift; what they want is stability. But the "stability" of the present system will destroy us, so it has to change.
I get that it sucks. I might have more sympathy if the cancel pigs ever considered the instability they put into our systems on purpose. They didn't, and don't, so I don't. I do wish /ourguys/ the best; fortunately, the enemy trained us to be more resilient.
Additionally, we know who supports us, so our extra cash will likely go to ensuring that it's those folks who weather the storm, rather than companies like SJG.
So the tariffs will force some woke board games companies to close down? Well, that's a great thing.
There's no national plan because we're not a communist country. Maybe if you hadn't all been so fast to offshore everything for what were minimal gains back then, you wouldn't be fucked now.
You reap what you sow.
So bite the bullet and start working on getting it done here. I'm sure you can get it done a lot cheaper than you think.
There you go. Those of you with an entrepreneurial bent, here is a need to fill. America needs you to build dice, counters, miniatures...
Granted, at first they will claim that it's TOO EXPENSIVE. They are going to have to be weaned off the cheap Chinese labor and materials. RPGs sold perfectly well before China was opened to manufacturing.
While I prefer that game companies prosper, I confess to a certain amount of "oh no, anyway" when so much poignant whining comes from the folks who repeatedly put out special bundles "to support trans rights", or openly racist games, or just in general heap scorn on most of the things I appreciate and believe. Most of the gaming industry has burned through a lot of sympathy I might have for their difficulties in dealing with the real world.
SJG wants its cake and to eat it, too. American companies *can* do many things, given sufficient reason. They've learned not to jump in with both feet when some desperate calls come in. Reason being that, for a few dollars, the desperate client begging for help will leave you high & dry.
See N95 mask production in the US early 2020.
I very, very rarely comment on this sort of stuff, but as a long-time small business owner that had to deal with changes in per-unit origin costs, logistics changes, etc. fairly routinely I do not understand how the SJG model turns a $1.62 per unit increase in origin costs into a +$15 retail price. The tariffs are not impacting shipping costs (oil price decreases might lower that, actually) or warehousing costs. They don't need to hire more staff.
No, I was not in the board game industry, I was in IT equipment, but I would need a lot more detail to grasp how the price would need to change more than about $2.50 per unit to maintain the same profit margin.
It's going to hurt so bad at first but time will tell.
The infrastructure for production of lots of games will need to be built up for efficiency with advancements in technology.
Specifically for plastic injection molding for minis that many companies demand.
That mega-cheap labor comes at a cost when it all comes crashing down.
Nearly everything we import from China is slave labor, just depends on the severity.
Not to mention cobalt mining needed for those huge EV batteries.
Print on demand services still exist for board games.
We can share dice until production picks up. Some of the old-timers hoard dice.
Release digital editions until production picks up. Not the best.
I don't have a clue for board games. Printed tolkien with markers and wipeboards and dice sharing. Trump Depression Edition.
I've got lots of dice. If we need more, rgn on my phone or I can just print some.
I wrote an RPG once that used playing cards instead of dice. The math for cards is more random.