In 2021, Mythic Games, backed by Ubisoft, announced a Kickstarter campaign for an officially licensed board game adaptation of Rainbow Six: Siege. Two years later, Mythic is asking people who have already paid for the game to pay – and in some cases, a much-more.
The game, simply called 6: Siege, is pretty much what you’d expect: two teams of agents do battle on a tactical map, one side attacking, the other defending. And as you would expect from an officially licensed board game released on Kickstarter, it is meant to be giganticwhich promises all kinds of plastic miniatures, extensions, 3D buildings and terrain.
In 2021, you can get the game in three tiers: a basic $69 copy, a deluxe version for $199, and an even more premium $269 edition. The last came with a much Stuff: five “years” of expansions, multiple map packs, extra units, a neoprene dice tray, 3D buildings, and even a small laser pointer that lets you quickly and accurately determine line of sight.
Now, in 2023, The pandemic has devastated the board game industryMythical (via wargamers) have posted an update on their campaign website stating that the money people paid during the first campaign will not, as it stands, cover their crafting costs.
As a result, they give backers three options: they can pay more money, they can wait for the prices to go down and maybe get their games at some point in the future, or they can ask for a refund. The $69 edition backers will be asked to pay an additional $39, the $199 backers will need to pay an additional $99, and the $269 backers will be asked to pay an additional $129.
That’s… hoo boy, that’s a much of extra money. Mythical have explained the decision on their campaign pagewith the increases attributed to international conditions, along with some internal overruns:
… the combined crisis of COVID and the war in Ukraine, which we did not expect, changed the international situation. Prices have exploded in all areas, and the estimates we used before and during the Kickstarter campaign are totally irrelevant.
To give you a few examples, the cost of paper and board has increased by an average of 50-100% (e.g. the paper we use has gone from $600 per ton to $1200 per ton), labor costs in China where our Games production, assembly and shipping has also doubled from $4 to $8 an hour. Energy, plastic and raw material costs have increased by almost 50%. While container rates have recently fallen from their ridiculous highs (but not back to pre-crisis prices), last mile costs have skyrocketed and have never been higher. On our side it has to be said that we invested much more than expected in the development of the game, that more people than expected worked on it and longer than originally estimated (which caused additional costs, but also has the advantage that we end up with an optimal, tried and tested, varied and balanced game).
Wildly, this isn’t the first time Mythic has had to do this; her Darkest dungeon The adaptation also had to ask for additional money, which 20% of backers rejected. In this case, Mythic’s update states, “If we don’t meet the commitment rate, we commit to reimburse all contributors for these additional costs equal to their contribution,” and that “At the end of the fundraising period, when we reach the commitment rate.” Once we have reached the minimum commitment to go into production, we will start printing.”
While I have a lot of sympathy for board game publishers and manufacturers at the moment, these terms are not new; I have written “Board games are having a bad time‘ in April 2020, and this game was kickstarted a year later. That Mythic hasn’t gone above and beyond in accounting for price swings during such turbulent times is a poor reflection of their campaign planning, and fans are rightly upset that they’re not only being asked to pay more, but much more.
It’s also another example of the dangers inherent in the arms race, such that many board game publishers are trapped on Kickstarter, increasingly offering obscene amounts of plastic miniatures and other luxuries with their games to appeal to backers while also making their own Projects much more expensive – and therefore risky – to actually do.
I’ve reached out to Mythic to clarify what exactly happens to the entire campaign if the “commitment rate” isn’t met and will update if I hear anything.
