Stonemaier Games, the company behind the popular bird-themed board game Wingspan, is taking a big step. They are suing former U.S. President Donald Trump. Why? Because of a new rule about taxes—called tariffs—that makes it very expensive for the company to bring its games from China to the United States.
The company says these tariffs mean that if it spends $10 to make a game, it has to pay $14.50 more just to get it into the U.S. That’s almost $1.5 million extra! For a small company with only eight employees, this is a big problem. They are worried this might hurt their business and make it harder to keep their games affordable.
Stonemaier Games is not the only one upset. In the past, other big companies like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft also said these tariffs were unfair. These companies make video games and game consoles, and they also had to pay more to get their products into the country.
Stonemaier is hoping the lawsuit will help stop these high tariffs. On their website, they explained why they joined the lawsuit. They want to protect their workers and make sure their games don’t get too expensive for fans.
Even though things are tough, Stonemaier is finding ways to keep going. They are keeping a lot of their games in China for now, and they sell about 35% of their games outside the U.S. That helps a bit. They also said their new game, Vantage, will still be the same price. But they’ll give customers a choice to help cover the extra cost if they want.
There’s some good news, too. After hearing about the lawsuit and complaints, Donald Trump said he might lower the tariffs on China. That could help game companies like Stonemaier and make things cheaper for everyone.
Other parts of the gaming world are also affected. Nintendo was careful when talking about pre-orders for its Switch 2 console in the U.S. And Square Enix, another game company, has stopped selling some of its merchandise in the U.S. because of the tariffs.
For now, Stonemaier Games is standing strong, hoping to make a difference not just for itself, but for other small businesses too.