The Internet has reduced the need for retailers and various rising costs have rendered their cut unviable, and increasingly, their businesses too, as Fandom Pulse chronicles the shutdown of Boardlandia:
It’s been a strange space in board gaming for the past several years as companies have turned to direct crowdfunding more and more, abandoning brick-and-mortar shops. While some online retailers have thrived by offering discounts, the industry received an artificial boost due to COVID-19, and a lot of gamers buying board games because they were stuck at home.
That boost faded, and now retailers have been in a precarious situation where most of the big sellers have all transitioned to direct crowdfunding, leaving little room for such retailers to exist. Enter the new tariffs, which have created a panic among board game companies who get their product from China.
This is why, despite the various difficulties we’ve battled over the last few years, I’m confident that the direct infrastructure we’re still building is going to be the right way to go over the next decade or two.