by W. Eric Martin

In addition to game- and publisher-specific reports from GAMA Expo 2025 — coverage that you can find in BGG News' convention reports category — I wanted to talk about the show as a whole, or rather one topic that continually came up in conversations with publishers: How will you deal with a 10% tariff imposed by the U.S. government on goods entering this country that originated in China?

That last bit is important as some non-publishers heard about newly imposed tariffs on goods from China and suggested that the goods be shipped elsewhere first, then on to the U.S. in order to avoid the tariff — but the goods still originated in China, so the tariff would still be imposed.

•••Warning, politics ahead•••
Also, that tariff on goods from China might rise to 20% as early as Tuesday, March 3, in addition to new tariffs being imposed on goods from Canada and Mexico. Here's an excerpt from a Feb. 27, 2025 article in the NY Times:

This approach is, to adopt President Trump's unconventional approach to capitalization, Highly Stupid. It's like trying to get someone to lose weight by strangling their neighbor. Tariffs are paid for by the entity importing the goods, which (for the most part) will be a U.S. company that is doing business with a Canadian, Mexican, or Chinese manufacturing partner. A fentanyl manufacturer is not loading drugs into a container for delivery to a dealer in the U.S., and even if they were, the buyer of the fentanyl would be the one paying the tariff — not the seller — then the buyer would bump the price of its goods to cover that additional cost.

A follow-up article on Monday, March 3, gives an update on this situation:

Never mind that according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, of the nearly 22 thousand pounds of fentanyl seized in 2024, less than .2% of it — only 43 pounds — was seized coming over the northern border that the U.S. shares with Canada. Instead of viewing this as a sign that Canada is not a source of fentanyl in the U.S., the Trump administration has apparently decided that Canadians are too wily to deal with in normal ways because clearly they're just evading all U.S. efforts to seize drugs.

Why don't we ever see elephants hiding in the trees? Because they're so good at it.

•••Breaking news•••
While I was writing this post, President Trump announced that yes, these tariffs will go into effect on Tuesday, March 3. Keep that in mind when reading the rest of what follows.

•••Back to comments on GAMA Expo 2025•••
While at the trade show, I spoke with roughly two dozen publishers about how they will deal with tariffs on goods coming from China, and their responses were all over the place:

• Companies ready to fulfill crowdfunding campaigns seemed largely of the opinion that they will just have to eat the cost rather than ask backers for more funds. Of course, some crowdfunding campaigns don't charge for shipping until goods are in hand so that might allow publishers to open a charity window when approaching backers: "The previously stated shipping cost was $X, and we're still charging $X despite now being required to pay an additional $Y due to new tariffs. If you want to add a few dollars to your payment to help cover this cost, we'd appreciate it."

• Some companies figure that they'll roll tariffs into their shipping cost calculations and treat that as a single expense instead of tariffs being something extra. After all, when you look at shipping costs, you're already figuring out what that cost is per item in order to help determine your final MSRP.

• Along the same lines, some publishers were clear that retail prices will increase. If they're paying a tariff of $1 per game, then the MSRP will likely bump up by $5 given that publishers typically operate with a final MSRP mark-up of 4-6 times the cost. The distributor will pay a bit more than $1 per game, then the retailer will pay more than that when buying from the distributor, then the customer will end up seeing a cost that's $5 higher than what it "should" be.

• A publisher might approach its manufacturer to see whether it has some leeway with its costs: "We want to keep working with you. We're a loyal customer. You're just the best. No one else produces games the way you do." And so on. If the manufacturer lowers its cost a smidge, then the tariff cost will be lower, and the publisher might end up paying only a hair more than it used to for the same game.

• Some publishers talked about moving to smaller (and therefore cheaper) games since the tariff would put a smaller bite on each copy produced. I had noted in my "Thoughts on GAMA Expo 2024" video that I saw many games being pitched with a retail price of at most US$20, so sure, let's continue that trend on a larger basis.

• Some publishers said they would likely do more crowdfunding since games sold that way are a direct purchase by the end user, which means that even when you discount from a game's MSRP, you're still making more per copy than if you sold those games to a distributor. (Of course, your costs per copy go up when crowdfunding since you're advertising that campaign, paying for preview videos, hiring an assistant or company to run that campaign, etc.)

BGG advertising manager Chad Krizan and I were talking at the show, and we could imagine certain publishers shifting to a "direct sale only" model, whether through crowdfunding, sales at conventions, sales through a website, or some combination of all of that. Even if you sell fewer copies, you earn more per copy, so you might be okay with that exchange and put more effort in getting your fans to proselytize your creations.

• One publisher mentioned making fewer games and putting more marketing effort behind those titles. Rather than shotgunning a dozen titles onto the market, perhaps you hone that line-up to 2-3 titles that you promote more heavily and consistently. Another publisher mentioned a move to focus more on evergreen titles, that is, games that sell continually, often in slowly increasing numbers annually, so that they can effectively make use of the fans that already exist to spread greater awareness of their titles. I mean, even with Ticket to Ride having sold tens of millions of copies, most people have still never heard about the game. (Perhaps coincidentally, Asmodee announced a refreshing of the Ticket to Ride base game for 2025.

• A single publisher mentioned that it would start manufacturing two of its titles domestically in the U.S., with several publishers explaining that the infrastructure isn't in place for much beyond the production of card games, and even doing that often doesn't make sense financially. In general, they say we're at least five years out from that type of production being available on a regular and cost-effective basis — and even then, costs would be higher than producing games in China.

Now take all of what I said above, and think about the tariff on goods originating from China now being 20%. What will change in all of these calculations? Hard to say since publishers weren't moving in the same direction to begin with. I'll reach out to publishers for comment once again when I send my next monthly newsletter to them, but in all likelihood those comments will be out of date immediately as well.

I talk about tariffs in the second quarter of the video below, with the initial quarter discussing a lack of trends beyond games that play like other games, and the final half highlighting a few games that went home with me for one reason or another. Time codes are included below for those who want to jump to a particular section.

Youtube Video
Sections of the video:

00:45 - trends?
09:18 - U.S. tariffs on goods from China
20:48 - upcoming games
35:28 - wrap-up