Game manufacturing in the US

Ars Technica explains Why doesn’t Cards Against Humanity print its game in the US? It’s complicated:

If CAH is this upset about the whiplash-inducing tariff rates, which are added and then removed with almost no warning, why doesn’t it print the game in the US? I mean, it’s just a box of cards! How hard can it be?

In the board game space, designers have wrestled with this question for years. While many US-based designers would like to work with local manufacturers, in reality, it’s often not possible.

It’s a good question. It boils down to cost and quality the latter causing cost concerns.

The cost part, they could maybe deal with it, and over time, manufacturing more could help reducing cost. But there is a whole chain for multiple components that is simply not there.

The quality part is another one. Just to make deck of cards, not only it is ultiple time more expensive, but it’s many time slower and the quality is so low that a lot of the produced games are unsellable due to manufacturing defect.

Those who tried can tell. Those who didn’t just put tariffs. And it’s not just specific to games, but board games look like something that is relatively simple to make. Printing on card board and cards, tokens made out of wood or plastic, dices, etc. It’s far from the technologically challenging electronics or automobile. And most industries remain price sensitive.

And I would be enclined to say that “Made in Canada” (we have a few Canadian based board game publishers) is probably even harder.

Previously: Counterfeit games