Renowned board game maker and publisher Greater Than Games has laid off staff and suspended operations, it announced Thursday, due to the impact of President Trump’s 145% tariff rate on goods imported from China.
The board game industry relies heavily on manufacturing from China. The tariffs have sent the tabletop industry into a major panic, and the impacts of the levies are already here. While Cephalofair Games has its Gloomhaven: Second Edition stock effectively stuck overseas due to tariff rates, Greater Than Games owner Flat River Group announced in a news release that it’s laid off staff at the imprint and suspended all projects “as the global tariff situation remains volatile.” Greater Than Games is known for publishing Sentinels of the Multiverse, Spirit Island, and Tak, among many others.
A representative for the company wrote that it’s “undergone a reduction in staff in response to ongoing economic pressures resulting from the international tariff crisis,” but that the Greater Than Games website will stay up “with in-stock products available to order.” Games will still be produced “as needed,” and “updates will be made at a later date for customers who ordered upcoming products (crowdfunding, pre-orders).”
Former Greater Than Games creative director Darrell Louder posted to Facebook on Thursday to announce his team had been “disbanded,” saying Flat River Group had “shuttered” Greater Than Games. Polygon has reached out to both Louder and Greater Than Games for clarification, specifically to confirm how many people were laid off and to inquire about the status of projects that had already been crowdfunded or pre-ordered by players.
While Greater Than Games may be one of the first high-profile makers to suspend operations due to Trump’s tariffs, it’s a fear many in the tabletop industry understand. Polygon spoke to nearly 20 organizations earlier in April that said they expect profits to be severely impacted by tariffs, that games in development may never come to market, and that jobs will be lost.
“These tariffs are a doomsday scenario for the US board game industry,” Cephalofair Games founder Isaac Childres told Polygon on Wednesday. “It is just not economically feasible to bring board games into the US at such tariff rates, which is already starting to dry up sales, causing an impact on retailers and distributors that I suspect will be much worse than COVID.”
Source：https://www.polygon.com/board-games/560850/greater-than-games-suspends-operations-trump-tariffs
