So, I talked not long ago on Malts and Meeples about the value of board games. Some of it from the perspective of how much you are getting, how much you can sell a game for. But one topic that I didn’t talk on was if board games are getting too expensive.

Current MSRP Increases

So let’s lay out a little bit of context. A number of board game companies are pushing up the MSRP (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price) because the price of creating a board game has gone up. Right now, there is lots of talk about how shipping costs are blowing up. And that definitely is the case which is delaying how fast things can ship but also when they do ship that cost can be moved onto the consumer.

But for board games that’s not the only cost increase to worry about. There has also been an increase in the cost of wood. If you’ve done a house project the past two years you’ll know that. So that means that wooden tokens and cardboard have all gone up in price. While they might all lower again over time, the MSRP increase is likely here to stay.

So Too Expensive To Succeed?

Now, this is not really the question I started with, but I think it’s the question that a lot of people will start thinking about. And I think it’s a question that a lot of gamers in the hobby are thinking about. Let’s take a look at a few games: Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread, Black Rose Wars: Rebirth, and Descent: Legends of the Dark. All of these games, before or after shipping are sitting at $175+ which is a lot of money. These, however, are not all games.

Tom Vasel on The Dice Tower gets sales numbers from GameNerdz, I believe it is now, every month to show that games, for them are selling the most. And the ones that sell a lot are generally cheaper games. The game My City was on the list for the month of July and that’s a $30 game. So, no, not all board games are getting too expensive. But the cost of board games in general, might be rising because of shipping and material costs.

But Are They Too Expensive?

To me, this is a hobby board gamer problem, the increasing price of games. The average person who likes board games but isn’t into the hobby doesn’t go to Kickstarter. They won’t see Descent: Legends of the Dark in Target. For them, the price of board games might be high, but it’s not an issue. Ticket to Ride, Catan, Smallworld, Carcassone, all of those games are still a reasonable price. Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition, still a normal price and that game just came out.

So it isn’t the modern classics that are only a good price. But for gamers who are more on the hobby, the price of board games does seem to be going up. Or more so, there are more good looking big games. For example, this year I have backed Marvel United: X-Men, Chronicles of Drunagor, Zombicide: Undead or Alive, and Primal, all of which had a price tag of over $100. And I bout Descent: Journeys in The Dark.

But Money

And this is what it comes down to. As board gamers we like our new games. There is this fascination with the “cult of the new” in board games. And I think in society as a whole, the new and the shiny are what people care about. Most of the complaints about board game prices really come down to the fact that we can’t afford every cool looking game.

When the original Zombicide came out with a big price tag for everything on Kickstarter, it was a surprise. But it wasn’t as hard a sell. Why, because there wasn’t a new $150+ game each week on Kickstarter. That price tag was a once in a blue moon level. When Kingdom Death Monster was on Kickstarter for $700 for an all in (or something near that), it was a ton of money, but again, not a game like that every week.

But not just that there weren’t big price tag games each week, there weren’t good games every week. Kickstarter was still getting started into what it is today. Now, every week whether it’s a $150 game or a $20 roll and write, there is a game, at least, every week that looks interesting. Most weeks it’s two or three games. Even in the not peak times of right before Christmas, there are still big games out there.

So What Are We Seeing?

What we’re seeing is a hobby booming and growing. It used to be a very niche hobby. Now it’s still a niche hobby but it’s growing in leaps and bounds. I am trying to remember what the Dice Tower had on their news but the money in the hobby grows by about 10% each year, and I think last year, in a pandemic, it was closer to 20%.

This is exciting, but what that means is that there are more games coming to the market. Now, that means that there are more bad games. But on the flip side, it also means more good games and a lot more good games. I think that people forget, very quickly, about the good games and how few were coming out before. We were spoiled because there were ten great games that would come up a year around 2010, and we could buy them all. Now it’s 100 and they cost from $15 to $200 and we can’t afford them all.

So what we’re seeing is the hobby growing and booming and that is what we should want to see. It means that 10 years from now, we aren’t going to see no more board games, there are always going to be more to play.

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