Price Increases
The prices of some of our games will be increasing, effective June 1. We held the line as long as we could – perhaps too long, everything considered. The reasons will be obvious to anyone in today's economy!
• General inflationary pressure
• Increasing shipping and distribution costs
• And, of course, higher production costs, largely due to the elephant in the room . . . tariffs. We have already paid a healthy five figures in surprise tariffs, and literally don't know what to expect for any given release until it clears Customs. For an ICv2 analysis of tariffs' impact on the gaming hobby, see here. Executive summary: Of course higher costs, from any source, are passed to the consumer. The money goes to the government, and, directly or indirectly, out of our pockets. Where I'm from, we call that a tax. The ongoing uncertainty about what will actually be tariffed, as Trump changes his mind and different courts weigh in, simply makes everyone at all levels reluctant to create new products, invest, or do anything else at all!
What can you do? As far as the tax goes: If you have the kind of elected representatives who read mail from non-billionaires, write letters! Vote, always, and encourage your friends to vote.
As for your own game collection: If you are on a tight budget, look for games released last year or earlier, which hopefully won't carry a tariff premium. If it comes down to it, buy used games or swap with your friends. I realize this advice won't sell many copies of OUR next release, but there are bigger issues right now.
And what can we do? Domestic printing is quite unfeasible on some releases, but where it's possible we're going to do it (Dahlia's is an example of creative print buying enabling domestic production, and there will be a whole Illuminator about that soon). There will be more books and more PDFs. We have already reduced our head count significantly (bizspeak euphemism for an agonizing process). Other measures to raise money or cut costs are on the table.
Wish us luck, and we wish you the same.