The trade war between China and the United States of America will not be impacting the Christmas shopping unless you do it in the last days before Christmas.

The Office of the US Trade Representative has announced that certain electronic products and toys will not be getting the 10% tariffs until December 15 – until now, the plan was to introduce it on everything on September 1, as Donald Trump, the president of the United States and Xi Jinping, the paramount leader of China, could not come to terms in Shanghai. Thus, from September 1, a lot of Chinese goods (such as cameras, clothes, food, construction materials…) will still be getting the extra tax, as well as – weirdly – the arcade games and their replacement parts…

„We’re doing this for Christmas season, just in case some of the tariffs would have an impact on U.S. customers, which, so far, they’ve had virtually none – the only impact has been that we’ve collected almost $60 billion from China – compliments of China. But just in case they might have an impact on people, what we’ve done is we’ve delayed it so that they won’t be relevant for the Christmas shopping season,” Trump said. However, the tariffs are not paid by the country of origin (China in this case) but the companies that import the goods, who would just pass the tariffs onto the customers, meaning the products’ prices would be increased.

Originally, the plan was to introduce 25% tariffs, and Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft have responded in a joint letter: „In particular, tariffs on video game consoles would injure consumers, video game developers, retailers and console manufacturers; put thousands of high-value, rewarding U.S. jobs at risk; and stifle innovation in our industry and beyond. While we appreciate the Administration’s efforts to protect U.S. intellectual property and preserve U.S. high-tech leadership, the disproportionate harm caused by these tariffs to U.S. consumers and businesses will undermine-not advance-these goals.”

So the tariffs are coming, meaning the next-gen consoles will cost more.

Source: Gamesindustry