President Trump hit a 90-day pause on a whole raft of “reciprocal” tariffs aimed at U.S. trading partners around the world. While many seem skeptical that the heavily criticized and widely unpopular import taxes could come back, what if Trump decided to do just that? A new report models what would happen under that worst-case scenario and predicts a crisis for the video game industry in the process.
“The imposition of the new Administration tariffs on U.S. imports of video game consoles boosts their costs significantly,” the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) writes in its May 2025 report. “Video games are not exempt from the reciprocal tariffs and face tariffs up to 145%. Imports of video game consoles were duty free until now, but average tariffs would increase to 130 percent under the new rates. The increase is owed to the fact that China is currently the source of 87 percent of U.S. imports, and those imports face a new tariff of 145 percent.”
If the pause lapses, reciprocal tariffs of up to 46 percent on Vietnam and other countries return, and the rest of the current import taxes continue, the CTA predicts that game console prices would jump by as much as 69.4 percent if the full tariff costs were passed on to consumers. That could mean a hike of up to $428 on the most expensive machines like a PS5 Pro. “American consumers would pay $12 billion more for video game consoles,” the report claims. “As a result, U.S. consumers reduce overall [game console] purchases by 73 percent.”
That worst-case scenario would come close to crippling console gaming in its largest market in the world. Fewer consoles sales mean fewer new games being bought, with knock-on effects that quickly filter out to the rest of the ecosystem, especially as each dollar spent on tariffs takes away from money that might have otherwise been spent on a new indie release or battle pass. Trump’s original rollout of the reciprocal tariffs was enough to get Nintendo to halt pre-orders for the Switch 2. Once the freeze was announced, the Mario maker later declared that the upcoming console would remain priced at $450, though individual accessories including controllers and cameras would each go up by $5. But that freeze is currently set to run out on July 9 at midnight.
“Our basic policy is to recognize tariffs as a cost when determining sales prices in any country or region and to incorporate them into the price,” Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said during a press conference following the company’s latest earnings report on Thursday, according to Reuters. “If the assumptions regarding tariffs change significantly, we would like to consider what price adjustments we should make and implement them after considering various aspects.”
Even if the reciprocal tariffs don’t come back, it’s unlikely that other gaming consoles predominantly still manufactured in China will remain at their current prices. Microsoft already hiked up the price of the Xbox Series X by $100, and is expected to make this year’s Call of Duty the first $80 entry in the multiplayer shooter franchise. It now seems like only a matter of time before Sony does the same, sending the PlayStation 5 up to $600 and the PS5 Pro closer to $1,000. If you were already planning on picking one up at some point, you probably don’t want to wait any longer.
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