Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on Mexico could spell bad news for video games

Hours after his inauguration speech, US President Donald Trump proposed a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada. According to industry analysts and experts, if the new tariff goes into effect starting February 1st, it will likely put some strain on all citizens’ wallets, despite Trump claiming that all the burden is being handed to the exporters.

On top of that, Trump also talked about adding an additional 10% tariff on China, something that has been a focal point of his since last year. Mexico, Canada, and China reportedly account for ⅓ of all imports across the US. The price hit will likely be shifted to the consumers and gamers who like to collect will also have a hard time.

Gaming hardware and physical video games will also see a price increase, as revealed by Video Game Industry Analyst, Mat Piscatella. Talking about the 25% tariffs, Piscatella said, “With 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico on the way, I can see a sharp downtick in the number of disc-based games that get released physically in the US, as much of that production infrastructure is in Mexico. If they do get made, I expect higher prices, both physical & digital.”

This will further lead to companies increasing the price of digital games to keep a consistent price. However, in case of an exception, people may see some relief, but none of the current signs are looking good for gaming.

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Hardware may also see a price hike

Trump previously mentioned that he further plans to increase tariffs for all countries. This will lead to the same effect but on a larger scale. Gaming consoles imported into the US will also see a price increase, making not only the games but also the devices they run on.

Nintendo recently announced Switch 2, and new GPUs from AMD and Nvidia are also set to launch this year. Hardware for these devices will also face increased import tariffs. Overall, this does not look good for the gaming industry, particularly the consumer side.