Trump tariffs will bring ‘significant harm’ to American gamers

Unsurprisingly, the games industry isn’t thrilled with Donald Trump’s tariff plans and is asking to be consulted to prevent harming American gamers. If you’ve been paying attention, you likely already know that the tariffs US president Donald Trump has been threatening stand to make gaming a more expensive hobby than it already is. Many components for PCs and consoles come from China, which Trump has now imposed stricter tariffs against. These have also extended to Mexico and Canada, which analysts predict will only accelerate the death of the physical games market – since a lot of disc production takes place in Mexico.

Although Mexico and Canada have managed to broker deals to temporarily prevent Trump’s proposed tariffs that’s only till March, and the games industry is eager to use this brief pause to talk the US government into an exemption. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is the trade group for the games industry in the US and represents most of the big name publishers based in the country, as well as any foreign companies with American divisions.

So, that includes not just the big three – Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft – but also the likes of EA, Take-Two, and Epic Games. Not to mention the gaming divisions for Disney, Warner Bros., and Amazon. The industry successfully lobbied during Trump’s first presidency, to ensure electronic goods wouldn’t be affected by tariffs, so it’s not surprising it would feel compelled to do it again. In a statement provided to Kotaku, the ESA says, ‘Tariffs on video game devices and related products would impact Americans of all ages across the country.

‘We urge the administration to consult with the private sector in a transparent process to avoid causing significant harm to everyday Americans and to one of the fastest growing entertainment sectors in the United States.’. The ESA (video game industry trade group representing Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and others) calls for Trump to "consult" with companies before tariffs cause "significant harm" in a new statement shared with Kotaku: pic.twitter.com/huNNuaYDg9.

A follow-up statement sent to IGN adds how such tariffs would also be economically detrimental: ‘Tariffs on video game devices and related products would negatively impact hundreds of millions of Americans and would harm the industry’s significant contributions to the US economy.’. No doubt the ESA hopes to seek another exemption, so companies won’t have to raise prices for their consoles and games. As a reminder, China is where most consoles are made, and Microsoft also has manufacturing facilities for its Xbox consoles in Mexico.

Such tariffs risk impacting prices in the rest of the world too. After all, if consoles and games became more expensive in the US, less people would feel inclined to buy them. So, companies would have to raise prices elsewhere to try and make up for the loss in profits. Nintendo in particular must be feeling antsy about the whole situation, since it’s meant to be launching the Nintendo Switch 2 this year and it may need to bump up whatever price it has in mind for it.

That said, MST Financial senior analyst David Gibson has suggested the Switch 2’s price won’t be impacted by any Chinese tariffs, pointing out that Nintendo shifted part of Switch production into Vietnam. ‘So, Vietnam production will supply to the US and China etc. will supply to the rest of the world. Smart,’ says Gibson though he admits things will go differently if Vietnam is ever struck by tariffs too.

While Mexico and Canada are currently trying to strike new arrangements, China so far plans to retaliate with its own tariffs on US imports. Reuters reports these will come into effect on February 10. Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.

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