Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft issue Joint Statement on potential tariffs on China

[PAOerfulone]

You do realize that if these tariffs go through, WE’RE the ones who are gonna take the bullet. Console prices are gonna skyrocket. So instead of PS5 and Scarlett launching at $400-$500, now they’ll launch at around $600+. And not just consoles, accessories and physical media is going to rise in price as well. So we’re looking at $80-100 for a full retail AAA game in the US. Just raising games to those prices would have led to smaller profit margins or small losses for 3rd party publishers and developers, but now that loss is multiplied by a slower and/or shrinking console market. So those small profits become small losses and those small losses become big losses. And if you think the major 3rd party publishers will have it bad, what do you think is going to happen to the smaller publishers and indie devs who are struggling to make their money back trying to sell their games? Some of them may even go out of business, which means hundreds of people will lose their jobs.

So the Big Three lose a sizable portion of their audience, which will also negatively impact their 1st party software sales and service subscriptions.

Major 3rd party developers have a smaller and slower audience to sell their games to as development costs get higher and higher, which could lead to more anti-consumer practices in the future similar to loot boxes just to squeeze the remaining audience dry and make their money back.

Smaller publishers and indie developers will now be staring closure and bankruptcy right in the face and their employees will have a one way ticket to the unemployment line.

And gamers get screwed in the rear because now we have to pay even more money (which is hard to come by for some of us) to keep supporting and enjoying a hobby.

Nobody wins in this scenario.

This is just a big fat L for the video game industry.