The tariff war between the United States and China might end up raising the prices of consoles – and it’s a question whether it will affect the European pricing or not.

GameDaily reports that the gaming industry might be impacted by the fact how Donald Trump, the President of the United States, might tax the consoles. The Office of the United States Trade Representative (which we will shorten to USTR from now on) has proposed another round of tariffs on goods imported from China, reaching as high as 25% of the value of the products.

Although America has been increasing the tariffs on the Chinese products for almost a year by now, the newest proposal would represent an annual trading value of 300 billion (!) dollars, even though tariffs on a 200-billion group have been raised just a few weeks ago. The USTR claims that this round would cover „essentially all” products that haven’t been covered by the previous tariffs – a few exceptions to it would be pharmaceuticals, medical goods, and some rare earth minerals. However, video game consoles, controllers, and coin-operated arcade machines WOULD be affected. Fortunately, no action will be taken until June 17 – the USTR would like to hear the people’s opinion about the tariffs.

With these tariffs, consoles might cost 25% more than their current price, meaning a Nintendo Switch, which is priced at 300 bucks (aside from sales tax and the like, which is different per state), might cost up to 370-380 after the taxes. However, this change in pricing might bring them closer to the European costs – there’s always a 1:1 conversion between USD and EUR, even though the latter currency is worth more at the moment.

There’s still a month before anything happens, but who knows, maybe Europe will get the short end of the stick as well if the EU sides with Trump in this trade war – if that’s the case, Europe might also see a price increase for consoles.

Source: Gamesindustry