The news broke first in a Facebook post by Greater Than Games Creative Director Darrell Louder. "I couldn’t confirm yesterday, but can today,” he wrote. “Due to current tariff war, Flat River Group has shuttered Greater Than Games effective today. Me and my team are now unemployed and disbanded. I’m shattered." The move comes in the wake of repeated escalations of U.S. import taxes on goods from China, now at 145% (see “Erratic U.S. Tariff Policy”).
A statement from parent Flat River Group clarified that while new projects were shuttered, at least for now, the website would remain up with in-stock items available to order. “Goods in the current catalog will still be produced as needed,” the statement said. “Updates will be made at a later date for customers who ordered upcoming products (crowdfunding, pre-orders).”
Greater Than Games had been a staple company in the games industry since 2011 with their flagship game Sentinels of the Multiverse and its many iterations (see "'Sentinels of the Multiverse Definitive Edition'"), Spirit Island and its expansions, and other titles.
Greater than Games was purchased by FRG in 2021 (see "Flat River Group Gets Greater Than Games"), and has since gravitated more toward publishing more family games (see "'Purrfect Match'") as well as more compact strategy games like the Compile: Main series (see "'Compile: Main 1'"). There have also been some delays on new their new releases. Their Sentinels of the Multiverse: Disparation expansion was supposed to hit retail in August 2024 (see "'Sentinels of the Multiverse' Expansion"), but has been pushed back all the way to July 31, 2025 [correction 4.19.2025 - Greater Than Games was incorrectly listed as the publisher of the Freedom Five board game. Arcane Wonders is the publisher of the Freedom Five board game, which is based on the Sentinels of Multiverse universe by Greater Than Games. Apologies - e.d.].
The impacts of the China tariffs on the board game business continue to mount; yesterday we reported on over a million dollars in new games stranded in China and two publishers that warned of price increases (see "$1.2 Million in Cephalofair Games Stranded in China").
Flat River Group’s distribution and fulfillment operations were unaffected by the move.