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.

Slave labor it is then. 

I'm sure the exact same arguments were made when people were arguing over seceding from the union and getting rid of black slavery. 

Btw, why would development costs get higher? How many games are developed in China? If anything, this will just make more and more games digital only versus raising prices by 20-40 a game. Just like how Switch games are lot of times digital if large, or download most the game due to publisher not wanting to fork out for a 26 or 32gb cart. 

The tl;dr version of the 7 page statement from the big 3 is this:

"Tariffs are bad.  Pls don't do."

I guess that "slave" labor thats being around for a couple of decades offends us now that its turned them into a leading global economy.

The trade war with China is probably the only thing in which I agree with the Trump administration.

There is no free trade with China, China still has very strong protectionist policies. Access to the Chinese market is very difficult, as a company you have to produce your goods in China to sell them there and often times you have to cooperate with a chinese company to gain market access. The Chinese state also owns 51% of all factories in the country which means every foreign company who produces in china gives the chinese state full control over their facilities, hand in hand with that goes Industrial espionage which the chinese are known for. Knowledge is the most important resource in today's information age so western countries who are especially dependent on knowledge have to do something about china's behavior.

So you see, trading with china is not fair at all. It's debatable if Trump uses the right measures but it's good that the US finally does something about it.

I hate tariffs and protectionism.

But the three companies have 2 years to set up operation in other countries if they see the risk of the tariff being kept.

I guess we should just let China get away with all the crap because the cost of video game systems might go up some🙄. China's economy is hurting pretty bad right now so I'm sure they'll come to the table with the US soon and the tariffs will go away.

Unfortunately, America has something much bigger to lose than the console manufacturers and that's valuable trade secrets ... 

I'd consider it to be a victory for the Trump administration if they manage to stick it to China and delay their technological development by 5 more years ... 

Well if SONY and Microsoft smart, they will follow Nintendo to build their system outside China. There are a lot of third world country that has capability like China in Southeast Asia. Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia.

Why aren’t they allowed to be advanced? And what difference does 5 years make?