Game companies are going to stop using Chinese manufacturers over the next five years. Here’s why.

Chinese manufacturers are unreliable.

I supported a Kickstarter around this time last year. Everything for the game but manufacturing was done when the Kickstarter started. The designer was an old pro. The company had a record of on-time fulfillment of its earlier Kickstarters. It easily funded. The manufacturer failed to deliver on time. They missed by six months.

Chinese companies have no respect for your IP and will steal it. 

The Chinese government hates freedom of speech. If the party doesn’t like your product, it will order it destroyed, even if it is made for export.

 

Automation, 3D printing, narrow AI and other technologies will make cheap labor meaningless. I predict that in a decade, you will be able to purchase games, manufactured in your geographical region which will be competitively priced with those manufactured in China. There is always an incentive to cut out the middle man. Some entrepreneur will figure out how to build low cost robots for small scale manufacturing and assembly. Someone will then utilize that technology to make games. When that happens, it will be less expensive to manufacture assemble and ship from local facilities than it will from China.