Time magazine had just published the article “The Board Game Business Is Booming, But the Global Shipping Crisis Could Be Disastrous” on September 28th. This article is spot on about how bad the shipping crisis is affecting the world as a whole and especially the board game industry.
Taking a quote from the article from Anne-Marie De Witt, the CEO of Fireside Games, she stated, “Before the pandemic hit, we were seeing 20-foot containers costing about $5,000 or so, which was up from about $3,000 in years prior,” De Witt says. “[W]e were fortunate enough to get one 20-foot container out at $9,000. Then our next two were $21,000 apiece… I’ve heard about some people paying $35,000 or even $40,000 for a 20-foot container. It’s just such a crapshoot.”
The article also mentions how it affects Kickstarter games as well in which backers need to be patient because most publishers are waiting for space on a ship or for costs to come down. From our personal experience in dealing with Kickstarter games, most of the companies are having to wait for space on a ship, wait for costs to come down, and/or having to wait and try to combine shipping with other games that are in production. I even heard that a few small companies are having to pair up with other companies in order to fill containers and split the cost of shipping across the ocean.
Is the shipping crisis limited to just loading containers on ships and sailing across the globe? I wish it was the case but domestically there is also a shipping crisis from the ports to the distribution hubs. There is a shortage of truck drivers to take the containers to their destinations. This is one reason why the cost of everyday products are going up as well.
As a result of all the factors in this shipping crisis, a lot of companies are having to raise their prices. This is noticeable in the game industry because games that were, for example, $9.99 are now being sold at $14.99. A previous $30 game is going for $40 or more at the moment.
Maggie Clayton of Greater Than Games, the maker of Spirit Island, stated in the Time article that the retail price of the game is up around ten dollars due impart to the shipping crisis.
Recently I had the opportunity to meet up with Ray Wehrs from Calliope Games and had a nice discussion with him about the state of the game industry and a little about how his company was doing. He confirmed with me about how critical the shipping crisis is and the costs of publishing games going up. As with Greater Than Games, his company has had to raise prices in order to keep the company afloat.
A lot of financial analysts are predicting this shipping crisis will remain in place for a least five years or more before becoming stabilized. Will we ever see pre-Covid pricing again? More than likely the answer is no.
We can hope for the sake of the cost of goods overall that this will end sooner than later but just be prepared for prices (and lack of supply) for things like toilet paper to go up again.
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