Donald Trump’s tariffs are a terrible deal for, well, everyone. Especially Americans who buy things. And especially gamers. We’d like to talk a bit about their effect, but before we get into the nitty-gritty, we first want to tell you about our Anti-Tariff Sale:
For a limited time, all existing physical products on the MCG Shop are discounted by 25%. We hope this “anti-tariff” will help ease the coming burden we’ll all face should Donald Trump’s tariffs go into full effect.
Earlier this week Donald Trump enacted new tariffs on virtually all products imported into the United States from several countries—notably, for our purposes, China and Canada. That’s terrible news for gamers, as the overwhelming majority of board games are manufactured in China, and a great many RPG books are printed in Canada.
In MCG’s case, most of our products are books, and we manufacture virtually all of our books in Canada. Our boxed games, and many of our decks, are for the most part manufactured in China. The books produced in Canada will be subject to a 25% tariff as of March 3rd; our China-produced items are already subject to a 10% tariff.
Donald Trump has falsely asserted that tariffs are paid by the exporting country. Make no mistake: a tariff is a tax paid by the importing company. To absorb this large and sudden increase in cost, keep the lights on, and ensure that our creative, hard-working team continues to get paid, we—like every other company that faces tariffs—can only absorb so much before we have to pass some of that cost on to the consumer.
Fortunately, a tariff only applies to the manufactured cost of an item—just what we pay the factory. It doesn’t include what we pay our artists and other contractors, or our payroll, or the many other costs that go into making these books for you. In fact, the manufactured cost of our books is well under half the total cost—so this tariff of 25% might increase the total cost of a book by more like 10% or so.
These tariffs have been telegraphed for a long time (though the specifics have been unknown prior to this week). We’ve been preparing for the possibility by seeking new vendors (in the US and other countries less likely to be targeted) and taking steps like assembling products here after producing overseas only those components that can’t be reasonably sourced in the US.
But these steps can’t offset the full cost of tariffs. We’re now competing with every American publisher for press time at US vendors—vendors that were already more expensive than our current partners, and may become even more so as they face tariffs on paper and other components. In other words, avoiding the cost of tariffs isn’t as simple as “just find a US printer”—not by a long shot. It may be just as expensive (or more) to repatriate our production as it is to pay these tariffs.
The upshot of all of this is that we’ll probably have to increase our prices for new products. These increases won’t be as large as the tariffs—a 25% tariff doesn’t mean a 25% price hike. But expect to see price increases in the neighborhood of 10% or so. (And not just on MCG’s products. Most other game publishers will be doing the same thing—or going out of business.)
Of course, these tariffs only affect new items as they are imported from the factory. We won’t raise prices on existing titles because of tariffs—in fact, we’re launching our Anti-Tariff Sale specifically to help make that point.
And it’s also worth noting that crowdfunding backers who have supported recent campaigns have already paid for their forthcoming items. We’ve taken steps to ensure we can survive this sudden cost increase for the limited number of items in this category. Regardless of how tariffs affect our costs, backers won’t have to pay anything extra.
All of this assumes, of course, that the tariffs go forward as they’re currently outlined. Donald Trump’s goals are unclear: he’s indicated he believes they’re good economic policy (which means they’re intended for the long term); but also that he’s using them to force other countries into policy changes (which means they may fizzle when those countries comply). So the tariffs may be rescinded before they impact our forthcoming products—or they may even go up if this proves to be the first volley in a protracted trade war. We will continue to pay close attention and work to mitigate their effect on the price of our products.
And in the meantime, we hope you take advantage of our Anti-Tariff Sale to stock up on some great games before the hobby we all love gets significantly more expensive!
