The sweeping tariffs on foreign goods unveiled by President Donald Trump on Wednesday, April 2 are expected to have widespread implications across the United States and beyond, affecting the cost of cars, clothes, wine, furniture, shoes, and — to the chagrin of many online — highly anticipated video games and consoles.
In the two days after the “Liberation Day” tariffs were announced, the Dow dropped 2,200 points, and the S&P lost 10 percent, with tech giants Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla all suffering stock losses. China retaliated against the U.S. with its own tariffs, and the European Union promised a unified response that could target these tech giants.
Trump’s ill-advised, seemingly arbitrary levies will affect the video game and board game industries in ways that might shock their community members (including those who had previously supported the administration’s economic policies). On Friday, April 4, video game giant Nintendo announced it would be delaying preorders for its highly anticipated handheld console, the Nintendo Switch 2, for U.S. customers.
Following Nintendo of America’s announcement, other global branches of the Japanese-based company have made strategic decisions regarding the sale date, with U.K. pre-orders officially going live on April 8, while Nintendo of Canada have chosen to also freeze early sales “in order to align with the timing of pre-orders to be determined in the U.S..”
The Entertainment Software Association, the trade group representing nearly every major gaming company in the U.S., told Game File that the tariffs will have “a real and detrimental impact” on the entire industry.
While the full scope of the impact of the U.S. tariffs is still to be determined, here’s what we do know.
Kneecapping Nintendo
Tariffs are taxes that governments place on goods coming in from other countries, usually to try to promote domestic industries or to help increase revenue. Often, companies offset the increased cost of importing their goods into another country by upping the price of their products, which means consumers foot the bill.
In 2019, during his first term, Trump threatened to extend tariffs on crucial components used to make products like iPhones, video game consoles, and laptops, prompting Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo to release a joint statement urging him not to, lest consumers pay “$840 million more than they otherwise would have.”
Back in 2019, Trump balked, delaying the tariffs and offering exclusions for popular consumer products. But now, he’s determined to put them in place, and companies like Nintendo, which started sourcing crucial console components from Vietnam and Cambodia (seemingly to prepare for a trade war back then), will now face the effects of his more widespread tariffs levied against almost 90 countries. Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” include 46 percent on Vietnam and 49 percent on Cambodia, which went into effect on Saturday, April 5.
Nintendo can’t just pivot its entire production line to the United States, either, as it would have to “spend billions to open a factory” in the U.S, according to video game market analyst and director of research and insights at Niko Partners, Daniel Ahmad. Ahmad posits this would “probably take four to five years to complete,” and when coupled with the increased cost of labor compared to Vietnam and other factors, would result in you buying an American-made Nintendo Switch 2 “in five years for a significantly higher price than $450.”
The Nintendo Switch 2 is the only major console releasing this year (Xbox and PlayStation likely won’t release new consoles for the next couple of years), set to drop on June 5. Pre-orders for the pricey new handheld (which will run gamers a cool $450) were set to start on Wednesday, April 9, as announced in the April 2 Nintendo Direct presentation.
But on April 4, Nintendo released a statement to IGN, saying pre-orders for the Switch 2 would not start on April 9 in the U.S. “in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions.” The statement continued, saying Nintendo “will update timing at a later date,” and that the June 5 launch date was still intact.
The Nintendo Switch 2 is one of the most highly anticipated consoles of the last decade — the original Switch sold 46 million units from its March 2017 release until November of last year, greatly outpacing every other major console. The newly revealed Switch 2 has way more storage, higher quality video output and maximum frame rates, and a bigger screen than both the original Switch and 2021’s Switch OLED, as well as a much higher price tag (the original Switch cost $300, the OLED $350, and the Switch 2 $450).
Switch 2’s cost already concerns Nintendo fans, and now, the threat of a possible increase as a result of Trump’s tariffs has them reeling. In the immediate aftermath, many took to social media to air their grievances, calling Trump the “worst president of US history”, joking that gamers would do “a January 6th,” and much more.
Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser told The Verge on April 7 that “any previous tariffs were not factored into the price itself” and that “we are actively assessing what [the new tariffs’] impact may be.” In an earlier interview with CBC, Bowser also acknowledged that the new device’s price may simply be out of reach for many, saying, “We recognize there are some people that may not be able to afford [the Switch 2’s] price point. That’s why we wanted to make the other Switch platforms available.”
A compounding problem
The Nintendo Switch 2 isn’t the only gaming product that will be negatively affected by the massive tariff increase. (It’s important to note that the last comparably sized tariff increase made the Great Depression significantly worse.)
Aubrey Quinn, the Entertainment Software Association’s senior vice president, told Game File that the game hardware (which includes consoles like the Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5, but also extends to PCs, controllers, keyboards, mice, headsets, and more) will likely “take a big hit due to the new levies.” That’s because gaming hardware parts are often sourced from different countries and have to come into and out of the U.S. multiple times during the production process.
“Any one product that a consumer would buy is likely to be subject to many of the tariffs announced, all compounded on top of one another,” Quinn told Game File.
This means that the Switch could be even more expensive than $450 and that other products, including physical game discs, controllers, and more, could see price increases as well.
Quinn told IGN the ESA expects “these tariffs will have a real and detrimental impact on the industry,” pointing to the potential impacts of a decrease in consumer spending, which could drop profits and further cost an already struggling industry, which has seen record layoffs the last two years after a pandemic-induced boom. (Rolling Stone reached out to Quinn for comment. She said the ESA does not have anything new to add at this time.)
Tabletop takes a hit
But it’s not just video game hobbyists whose wallets may feel lighter thanks to the Trump tariffs — tabletop developers and publishers are also panicking. Most tabletop games are produced overseas in countries like China, and the soaring increase in production costs means manufacturers will either have to increase the price of their games or cease production entirely.
Steve Jackson Games, a prolific tabletop RPG (TTRPG) publisher that’s been around since 1980, released a statement about the tariffs, calling them a “seismic shift.” The statement breaks down the math behind this shift, saying that a hypothetical product manufactured in China last year for $3.00 could now cost $4.62 before it’s even shipped to the U.S. “Add freight, warehousing, fulfillment, and distribution margins and that once-$25 game now becomes a $40 product,” the statement continues. “That’s not a luxury upcharge; it’s survival math.”
The Game Manufacturers Association, a non-profit trade organization for the hobby games industry, also released a scathing statement (via Polygon) saying, “This one-two punch is likely to put many of our members out of business or force them to downsize and lay off employees to survive.”
Many tabletop games come from successful Kickstarter campaigns launched by smaller developers and funded by excited prospective players — studios who haven’t yet manufactured their games may not be able to now. Broken Door Entertainment, a new TTRPG developer working on its first game, will “have to eat [the tariff] costs to fulfill the Kickstarter,” its founder Joshua M. Simons told Polygon. “The tariffs will erase 20 percent of my expected profits off this initial print run, making it much harder to get my next round of products developed,” he said.
Other small TTRPG makers echoed similar sentiments, with one saying they canceled a print run of board games that very morning or revisiting their campaign launches to counteract potential backers’ fears of rising costs.
Studios and publishers based abroad could see massive drops in board game sales, as these tariffs will affect the cost of many products Americans use daily — not just the ones related to their hobbies. As Aftermath’s Luke Plunkett points out, the U.S. is “one of (if not the) single biggest market for board games,” and Americans “are about to have a lot less expendable income to spend on things like board games.” And video games, for that matter.
From Rolling Stone US
