And it’s not just in-store releases that could see an increase, digital releases could also cost more…
US President Donald Trump has also imposed tariffs on Canadian and Mexican products. The latter could be the problem: products imported from our southern neighbor will be 25% more expensive, and according to Mat Piscatella of Circana (formerly NPD Group), this could significantly reduce the US presence of in-store spending, as the manufacturing infrastructure is mostly in Mexico. If disc (cartridge) editions of games are still made, he expects price increases not only for retail, but also for digital games, as Piscatella expects price parity between retail and digital releases.
He has already stated that the tariffs imposed on the two neighboring countries of the United States are not good for the retail game market. One might ask, could production not be moved to America? The analyst says that with significant investment it could be done, but given that Americans are now spending half as much on disc/cartridge games as they will in 2021 (and that’s a rapidly declining trend), he doesn’t think it’s sustainable, especially when you consider the costs. And he thinks this is the wrong combination to make the potential investment favorable…
And we wrote the other day that with the release of Grand Theft Auto VI, you can expect to pay up to $100 for the games in the United States. This price could be affected by the Trump tariffs. The gaming industry is waiting for this game in software and the Nintendo Switch 2 in hardware. The industry is expecting a boost from these, but who knows what will happen here, but what is certain is that the tariffs (which will be even heavier on products made in China…) will make everything more expensive in America.
Whatever happens, we can already see that Piscatella’s prediction doesn’t look bad. The only question is whether European prices will follow this trend…
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