For those of you looking to put your purchased games on the shelves, you may not have as many opportunities to do so later on.

Now that U.S. President Donald Trump has finally imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, publishers may decide to stop releasing physical (retail) games due to increased production costs, according to one analyst. Trump has been threatening tariffs for weeks, but now Mexico and Canada have been hit with 25% tariffs, while China’s rate has been raised from 10% to 20%. The tariffs on Mexico and China are likely to have a significant impact on the gaming industry, as both regions are major players in the production of both disc/cassette games and consoles…

Mat Piscatella, an analyst at Circana (formerly NPD Group), wrote on Bluesky that the increased cost of importing physical products from Mexico (where the vast majority of North American physical game discs are made) could lead publishers to cut back even further on the production of in-store copies. Daniel Ahmad, an analyst with Niko Partners, asked how the 20% Chinese tariff on consoles and the 25% Mexican tariff on disc/cartridge production will be affected. In response, Piscatella noted that while it is not that significant, he would not be surprised if the physical games affected by the tariffs simply do not get made and publishers switch to an all-digital strategy, which would be a major disruption.

Although most AAA titles still get a disc release, we have seen several examples of games skipping this version. It is mainly indie games with smaller budgets that skip the physical release and can only be purchased digitally (PlayStation Store, Microsoft Store, Steam, Nintendo eShop), which increases the need for game preservation.

And on more than one occasion, a game has become completely unplayable. Initiatives have been taken to prevent this, but we have yet to see the results. It’s not for nothing that the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series both have digital-only versions…

Source: VGC