To gamers around the world, April 2—“Liberation Day”—meant something else.

In a slick prerecorded video presentation, Nintendo unveiled the Switch 2, the long-awaited successor of its wildly popular Nintendo Switch handheld console. It was exactly what gamers were hungry for: details on the console’s more powerful specs; expanded access to Nintendo’s decades-old back catalog; and new entries in the popular Mario Kart and Donkey Kong series. Even a surprise price hike—$450 versus the Switch’s $300—didn’t dent enthusiasm.

A U.S. president could, though. A few hours later, Donald Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs, including steep taxes on imports from China, Vietnam, Japan, and Cambodia—Nintendo’s manufacturing hubs.

It upended plans years in the making. The Switch 2’s June 5 launch was poised to be a shot in the arm for Nintendo and the video game industry. Nintendo needs “something new and exciting out in the marketplace that kicks that can down the road on the tech stuff for another decade, so they can continue to make the games they want to make,” explains Jeff Gerstmann, a journalist who has covered the industry for decades.

Now Nintendo (like nearly every other company) is trying to keep up, even as Trump has since suspended most of the tariffs amid negotiations. Two days after Liberation Day, Nintendo paused U.S. preorders to assess the “potential impact of tariffs.” It reopened them a few weeks later, maintaining the $450 price point and June 5 launch—but hiked prices on everything else, like controllers, “amiibo” figurines, and other accessories.

Like many other manufacturers, Nintendo (which didn’t respond to Fortune’s request for comment) is trying to figure out how to roll out a new product as the world’s largest consumer market takes a protectionist turn. The Switch 2 is still likely to be a success, even if not quite as much as Nintendo hoped a month ago. But it will also be one of the first tests of how consumer tech companies will stay afloat in a world of tariffs, decoupling, and protectionism.

If the video game industry has a champion, it’s Nintendo. Founded in 1889 as a playing-card maker, it has developed the most well-known portfolio of intellectual property apart from Walt Disney, thanks to franchises like Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Pokémon.

But it’s also one of Asia’s most prominent consumer-tech companies, an Asian brand with true global reach. After struggling to stay relevant in the 2010s, Nintendo unveiled the Switch in 2017: an affordable handheld console that could connect to a television, but could also function without one.

It was a wildly successful move. With 150-million-plus units sold as of March 2025, the Switch is the third-bestselling console of all time, behind Sony’s PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo DS. COVID lockdowns made it a true household name, as consumers occupied themselves with video games. Nintendo, with its affordable console and a new game in the Animal Crossing series of cozy life simulators, was well-placed to capture that demand. Nintendo sold over 27 million consoles in 2020 alone.

But eight years is an eternity in the video game world, and the console was showing its age. Nintendo reported slowing sales as gamers tired of a system that struggled to run the newest games, even those specifically designed for the console. Nintendo was also holding back marquee releases, so many people put their Switches in a drawer and forgot about them.

Nintendo reported 1.2 trillion Japanese yen ($7.6 billion) in sales for its most recent fiscal year, which ended in March, a 30% drop from the previous fiscal year. Its ordinary profit saw an even bigger dip, dropping 45% year on year to reach 372 billion yen ($2.4 billion). And the company sold 11.5 million consoles in 2024, less than half of what it sold during the COVID boom years.

Still, investors have shrugged off Nintendo’s slowdown in anticipation of the Switch 2. Nintendo shares have been at record highs since December. Its market value is over $90 billion, making it Japan’s eighth-most-valuable firm and placing it ahead of many Japanese companies on the Fortune Global 500.

Nintendo was one of the first companies to shift manufacturing out of China to nearby Vietnam and Cambodia in 2019, after the first Trump administration threatened to impose tariffs on video game consoles made in China.

“The majority of their production is still done in China, but they’ve now switched to Vietnam to focus pretty much entirely on U.S. console production,” says Daniel Ahmad, an analyst with gaming-industry consultancy Niko Partners. That puts Nintendo “ahead of the game” compared with competitors Sony and Microsoft.

As the second Trump administration started up, Nintendo began front-running shipments to get ahead of possible future tariffs. JPMorgan estimated in early April that Nintendo had enough inventory to meet demand for six months to a year.

The Switch 2’s initial numbers likely won’t take a hit, even with the price hike. Preorders in markets like the U.S. and Japan sold out instantly, and the company is already apologizing for future shortages. Nintendo is even selling a cheaper version that works only with games bought in Japan, likely to avoid resellers trying to bring it to markets like mainland China, where the company doesn’t have an official presence.

The real question will come after the initial launch, when holiday shoppers start thinking about buying the latest version. “The big questions are around value—$450 is not a small amount of money,” Gerstmann says. The cost of games, too, is going up: Nintendo is targeting $70 to $80, as opposed to the $60 that has been traditional across the industry.

The company is trying to scale back expectations, forecasting lower-than-expected Switch 2 sales of 15 million (still roughly in line with how the first Switch sold after its launch in 2017). In a May briefing to investors, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said the company was factoring in a profit hit worth “several tens of billions of yen,” but noted the calculation was made on the basis of 145% tariffs on China and 10% tariffs on everyone else. (Trump soon after lowered tariffs on China to 30% for a 90-day period.)

Furukawa noted the company’s “basic policy” was to pass on tariffs to customers—but admitted a price hike might not be the greatest idea for a just-debuted console.

Nintendo isn’t alone in thinking about how to manage increasing costs and new tariffs. Citing costlier development and “market conditions,” Microsoft implemented a $100 price hike for the Xbox Series X and plans to start selling $80 games. Sony has avoided hiking PlayStation prices in the U.S., but raised prices elsewhere.

The video game industry has been grappling with higher costs for years. Ahmad first points to the COVID supply-chain shock, which pushed up prices of components like memory. Game development is also getting more expensive as graphics become more advanced, boosting staffing and technology costs. That rebounds in the real world; Ahmad notes that Nintendo uses cartridges, rather than discs. “If your game is 64 gigabytes and you get a 64-gigabyte cartridge, that’s going to cost more to publish.”

By making the first move to $80, Nintendo might have done the industry a favor. “I’m sure other publishers and manufacturers are super happy that Nintendo took the blow for them,” Gerstmann says. He speculates that Nintendo’s lower-end hardware, compared with Sony and Microsoft, might appeal to studios now trying to keep costs low: “There’s real potential for the Switch to change a lot of things about the way games are made.”

The world may have avoided the worst of U.S. tariffs for now—they stand at 30% on China and 10% on everyone else as U.S. officials try to negotiate with major trading partners. At those levels, tariffs are tough but manageable for global business.

But if negotiations break down—or if Trump lets his 90-day pause expire—then tariffs will shoot back up again: 54% on China, 46% on Vietnam, and 49% on Cambodia, giving Nintendo a lot to contend with.

Their struggles are indicative of a broader tension in Trump’s tariff regime: Vietnam and Cambodia are two popular “China plus one” destinations, countries where manufacturers based final assembly so as to avoid tariffs on China-made products.

Trump officials are reportedly pressuring trading partners to limit trade with China in order to isolate Beijing. But a surge in exports by Vietnam, Cambodia, and others will hurt Trump’s other goal: balancing U.S. trade with the rest of the world.

Nintendo’s customers are used to facing uncertain and hazardous environments in the company’s games. The question now: Can Nintendo, and other Asian manufacturers, show that same skill in navigating a more geopolitically fraught world?

This article appears in the June/July 2025: Asia issue of Fortune with the headline “Game on!”

BING-JHEN HONG / iStock.com

If restocking your pantry or upgrading that kitchen appliance has taken a back seat, now might be the time to shift into high gear — Trump’s tariffs are set to expire on July 9, a change that could impact prices, even for Costco shoppers who save money buying in bulk.

Read More: 6 Costco Products That Have the Most Customer Complaints

Find Out: 6 Things You Must Do When Your Savings Reach $50,000

Roughly one-third of Costco’s inventory is imported, CEO RonVachris told Entrepreneur. In March 2025, most Costco imports came from China (1,731 shipments), Norway (72 shipments) and India (41 shipments), reported the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC). Costco also sources goods from Canada, Mexico, Asia and the European Union (EU).

With the 90-day pause on tariffs expiring soon, retirees living on a fixed income or those wanting to stretch their dollar may want to take advantage of current Costco prices before they could get more expensive. Here are the Costco items retirees may want to stock up on now.

Trending Now: Suze Orman’s Secret to a Wealthy Retirement–Have You Made This Money Move?

Seafood

Retirees who freeze seafood should consider buying in bulk. Eighty percent of seafood is imported, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While buying from overseas manufacturers might have kept prices down in the past, this could change when reciprocal tariffs resume on Canada (25%), Vietnam (46%), India (26%) and Indonesia (32%).

Explore More: How To Get the Most Value From Your Costco Membership in 2025

Cooking Oil

The price of olive oil is already sky-high, but it can even climb higher if tariffs increase. Olive oil is imported from the Mediterranean countries of Italy and Spain, which face an EU tariff of 4.4% to 50%.

If you like to cook with avocado oil, consider stocking up your pantry shelves to avoid the 5% tariff imposed on Mexico — one of the largest producers of avocados worldwide.

Spices

India is a leading producer and exporter of spices, including cumin, turmeric, cinnamon and cloves. You’ll find others that go into tasty, aromatic and healthy dishes as well, such as Kirkland vanilla bean, which comes from Madagascar off the Indian Ocean, facing a 47% tariff, according to according to Eating Well. Spices that come from China include peppercorn, cinnamon, ginger, chile and star anise.

Electronics

If you’ve been considering buying a new iPhone from Costco, the price might be higher in a month. President Trump has imposed a 25% tariff on Apple products manufactured outside the U.S. The countries Apple has used for manufacturing iPhones include China, India and Vietnam. Other electronic products, such as TVs and headphones, are manufactured in China, the EU, Asia, and Mexico.

Appliances

If you’re planning on upgrading your home appliances, you may want to purchase them sooner rather than later. The largest manufacturer of appliances is in China. LG Products, one of Costco’s brands, sells large and small appliances, including refrigerators, dishwashers, washers and dryers, and other appliances manufactured in China and South Korea.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 5 Costco Items Retirees Need To Buy Now Amid Trade Wars

With summer in full swing in the United States, retail executives are sweating a different season. It’s less than 22 weeks before Christmas, a time when businesses that make and sell consumer goods usually nail down their holiday orders and prices.

But President Donald Trump’s vacillating trade policies, part of his effort to revive the nation’s diminished manufacturing base and to reduce the U.S. deficit in exported goods, have complicated those end-of-year plans. Balsam Hill, which sells artificial trees and other decorations online, expects to publish fewer and thinner holiday catalogs because the featured products keep changing with the tariff — import tax — rates the president sets, postpones and revises.

“The uncertainty has led us to spend all our time trying to rejigger what we’re ordering, where we’re bringing it in, when it’s going to get here,” Mac Harman, CEO of Balsam Hill parent company Balsam Brands, said. “We don’t know which items we’re going to have to put in the catalog or not.”

Months of confusion over which foreign countries’ products may become more expensive to import has left a question mark over the holiday shopping season. U.S. retailers often begin planning for the winter holidays in January and typically finalize the bulk of their orders by the end of June. The seesawing tariffs already have factored into their calculations.

The consequences for consumers? Stores may not have the specific gift items customers want come November and December. Some retail suppliers and buyers scaled back their holiday lines rather than risking a hefty tax bill or expensive imports going unsold. Businesses still are setting prices but say shoppers can expect many things to cost more, though by how much depends partly on whether Trump’s latest round of “reciprocal” tariffs kicks in next month.

The lack of clarity has been especially disruptive for the U.S. toy industry, which sources nearly 80% of its products from China. American toy makers usually ramp up production in April, a process delayed until late May this year after the president put a 145% tariff on Chinese goods, according to Greg Ahearn, president and CEO of the Toy Association, an industry trade group.

The U.S. tariff rate may have dropped significantly from its spring high — a truce in the U.S.-China trade war is set to expire on Aug. 12 — but continues to shape the forthcoming holiday period. Manufacturing activity is way down from a year ago for small- and medium-sized U.S. toy companies, Ahearn said.

The late start to factory work in China means holiday toys are only now arriving at U.S. warehouses, industry experts said. A big unknown is whether tariffs will keep stores from replenishing supplies of any breakout hit toys that emerge in September, said James Zahn, editor-in-chief of the trade publication Toy Book.

In the retail world, planning for Christmas in July usually involves mapping out seasonal marketing and promotion strategies. Dean Smith, who co-owns independent toy stores JaZams in Princeton, New Jersey, and Lahaska, Pennsylvania, said he recently spent an hour and a half running through pricing scenarios with a Canadian distributor because the wholesale cost of some products increased by 20%.

Increasing his own prices that much might turn off customers, Smith said, so he explored ways to “maintain a reasonable margin without raising prices beyond what consumers would accept.” He ordered a lower cost Crazy Forts building set so he would have the toy on hand and left out the kids’ edition of the Anomia card game because he didn’t think customers would pay what he would have to charge.

“In the end, I had to eliminate half of the products that I normally buy,” Smith said.

Hilary Key, owner of The Toy Chest in Nashville, Indiana, said she tries to get new games and toys in early most years to see which ones she should stock up on for the winter holidays. This year, she abandoned her product testing for fear any delayed orders would incur high import taxes.

Meanwhile, vendors of toys made in China and elsewhere bombarded Key with price increase notices. For example, Schylling, which makes Needoh, Care Bear collectibles and modern versions of nostalgic toys like My Little Pony, increased prices on orders by 20%, according to Key.

All the price hikes are subject to change if the tariff situation changes again. Key worries her store won’t have as compelling a product assortment as she prides herself on carrying.

“My concern is not that I’ll have nothing, because I can bring in more books. I can bring in more gifts, or I can bring in just things that are manufactured in other places,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to have the best stock for every developmental age, for every special need.”

The retail industry may have to keep taking a whack-a-mole approach to navigating the White House’s latest tariff ultimatums and temporary reprieves. Last week, the president again reset the rates on imports from Brazil, the European Union, Mexico, and other major trading partners but said they would not take effect until Aug. 1.

The brief pause should extend the window importers have to bring in seasonal merchandise at the current baseline tariff of 10%. The Port of Los Angeles had the busiest June in its 117-year history after companies raced to secure holiday shipments, and July imports look strong so far, according to Gene Seroka, the port’s executive director.

“In my view, we’re seeing a peak season push right now to bring in goods ahead of potentially higher tariffs later this summer,” Seroka said Monday.

The pace of port activity so far this year reflects a “tariff whipsaw effect” — imports slowing when tariffs kick in and rebounding when they’re paused, he said. “For us consumers, lower inventory levels, fewer selections and higher prices are likely as we head into the holidays.”

Smith, who co-owns the two JaZams stores with his partner, Joanne Farrugia, said they started placing holiday orders two months earlier than usual for “certain items that we felt were essential for us to have at particular pricing.” They doubled their warehouse space to store the stockpile. But some shoppers are trying to get ahead of higher prices just like businesses are, he said.

He’s noticed customers snapping up items that will likely be popular during the holidays, like Jellycat plush toys and large stuffed unicorns and dogs. Any sales are welcome, but Smith and Farrugia are wary of having to restock at a higher cost.

“We’re just trying to be as friendly as we can to the consumer and still have a product portfolio or profile that is gonna meet the needs of all of our various customers, which is getting more and more challenging by the day,” Smith said.

Balsam Brands’ Harman said he’s had to resign himself to not having as robust a selection of ornaments and frosted trees to sell as in years’ past. Soon, it will be too late to import meaningful additions to his range of products.

“Our purpose as a company is to create joy together, and we’re going to do our very best to do that this year,” Harman said. “We’re just not going to have a bunch of the items that consumers want this year, and that’s not a position we want to be in.”

As a tariff storm blew in from south of the border earlier this year, many industries in Canada, including the home building sector, feared the unknown ahead of them.

With stakeholders already keenly aware of the need to rapidly scale up housing supply and improve Canada’s housing affordability gap, blanket tariffs and more targeted material-specific levies meant additional unwelcome obstacles to overcome.

That included a potential need to slow down the pace of construction as supply chains shifted and key construction parts became more expensive.

“I would say that’s been borne out,” said Cheryl Shindruk, executive vice-president of Geranium Homes, a residential developer in southern Ontario.

“It’s difficult to pinpoint what exactly is the cost impact, but we certainly can say that there is an impact in terms of business confidence and … having materials when they need them in a timely manner.”

About six months after U.S. President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, many in the home construction sector say unpredictability persists around the cost and timing of obtaining the materials they need.

For Geranium, that’s meant having to pivot on the fly when it comes to the supply chains it’s long relied on.

Shindruk said the firm is now increasingly sourcing materials made in Canada, such as brick and stone, and doubling down on products typically imported from other countries besides the U.S. That includes steel, which it sources from countries including South Korea, Portugal and China — allowing it to avoid surtaxes on American steel in response to Trump’s tariffs.

But she said some materials simply can’t be replicated in domestic or other international markets. For instance, a component in the layered glass windows used by Geranium continues to be sourced from the U.S. due to patent issues. The company has essentially decided to eat the extra costs.

“It’s not like switching on a switch and all of a sudden those materials that used to be sourced from the U.S, which are significant, can now be produced in Canada,” she said.

“Where that’s not realistic, then items are continuing to be sourced from the U.S. and (we’re) paying the tariff.”

Among products hit hardest by the trade war, Canadian Home Builders’ Association CEO Kevin Lee highlighted appliances, interior doors and carpeting.

In some cases, he said builders have looked for substitutions to their typical input materials.

“Where somebody might have been getting carpet in the past, they’re saying ‘You know what, we can move to vinyl plank,'” he said.

Others are getting creative by stockpiling materials to avoid potential shortages later on.

“They’re taking advantage of the availability of acquiring it and then having it available for future, which then increases the overhead because you’re holding on to that material, rather than acquiring it when you need it,” Shindruk said.

With early concerns about the effects of the trade war, Greater Toronto Area-based Altree Developments had forecast a three to five per cent hit to its overall budget, said the company’s president and CEO Zev Mandelbaum.

That figure has since decreased due to more Canadian material being available than first anticipated, said Mandelbaum. But he said the roller-coaster of tariff developments — from the latest threat of additional levies to hope that ongoing negotiations will soon lead to a new trade deal — has made it “impossible” to plan ahead.

He added his company has seen a far greater impact on the revenue side of the business over the past six months, as economic uncertainty drove down buyer demand.

“It was more the fear of just … economic instability in Canada that stopped house buying and stopped people from wanting to invest, whether it be locals looking for homes or foreigners looking to invest in the country,” he said.

“That alienation caused us to have less sales, and because of that, that put even more pressure on construction costs.”

In its housing forecast for the year, published in February, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. predicted a trade war between Canada and the U.S. — combined with other factors such as reduced immigration targets — would likely slow the economy and limit housing activity.

The national housing agency had also said Canada was set for a slowdown in housing starts over the next three years — despite remaining above the 10-year average — due to fewer condominiums being built, as investor interest lags and demand from young families wanes.

As of June, year-to-date housing starts totalled 114,411 across regions with a population of 10,000 or greater, up four per cent from the first half of 2024.

Despite that boost in new construction, a regional analysis shows provinces with industries more exposed to tariffs are experiencing a slowdown, said CMHC chief economist Mathieu Laberge. He noted Ontario’s housing starts have dropped around 26 per cent to date year-over-year, while B.C. has seen an eight per cent decline.

In Ontario, five of the 10 most tariff-impacted cities also recorded an increase in mortgage arrears during the spring. Laberge said the trade war, or associated macroeconomic factors, likely prompted layoffs in those regions which meant people couldn’t pay their mortgage.

He said he expects that will eventually translate to a lower number of homes being built.

“This is a slow filter through, but it’s a real one. We see it happening — although maybe not in the housing starts or resales yet,” Laberge said.

Lee said the industry is already noticing those effects.

“The big problem now is we’re just not getting the kind of starts we need and there’s a lot of concern in the industry now,” Lee said.

Before tariffs, he said some regions, such as Atlantic Canada and the Prairies, had started to see housing starts rebound from a national lull that was fuelled by previously high interest rates. Other provinces, such as Ontario and B.C. — where houses remain the most expensive — hadn’t yet reached similar levels of new construction.

“What’s happened with the trade war is that it’s made things worse in Ontario and B.C. and we are seeing things slow down a little bit in Atlantic Canada and the Prairies,” said Lee.

“So it’s having a dampening effect everywhere.”

His association’s second-quarter survey of its membership found 87 per cent of builders stated they have concerns about the well-being of their business over the next 12 months.

Around 35 per cent said they have had to recently lay off workers and have no current plans to rehire — up from 21 per cent a year ago.

“It’s getting quite serious,” said Lee.

“There’s just a great deal of concern in the market.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2025.

Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press

Topline Sony said Wednesday it may either hike prices on consumer goods or move its PlayStation manufacturing to the United States to ease the expected burden of President Donald Trump’s tariff policy, possibly joining Nintendo and Microsoft in raising prices for gamers. Sony warned it may hike prices on consumer goods in an earnings call. (Photo credit should read CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images) CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images

Key Facts

Sony CFO Lin Tao said during an earnings call Wednesday the tariffs will impact its hardware, gaming and semiconductor production, which may lead the company to increase prices on consumer goods, though she did not mention the PlayStation 5 by name. Hiroki Totoki, Sony’s president, said the PlayStation 5, which is currently mostly produced in China, could instead be produced in the United States to avoid tariff hikes—though gaming publication Polygon reported moving its manufacturing capabilities could take years. Sony already hiked PlayStation 5 prices abroad following Trump’s tariff announcement: The company raised the console price by 25% in Europe, Australia and New Zealand in April, citing “a challenging economic environment, including high inflation and fluctuating exchange rates.” Joost van Dreunen, a New York University Stern School of Business professor who teaches about the business of video games, told Forbes that because Sony has “raised prices everywhere except the U.S., it’s safe to say that’s where we’re headed next.” Van Dreunen called Sony’s possible pivot to U.S.-based manufacturing “strategically fraught” because the company would have to coordinate labor, suppliers and other manufacturing logistics: “Even if the PS5 and PS6 can be built domestically, it’s not clear that it should be.” Sony projected lower PlayStation sales in the coming year with about 15 million units shipped, down from the 18.5 million units shipped in the year ending March 2025 and nearly 21 million the year prior. Also weighing on the PlayStation 5’s outlook is the delay of the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI, Bloomberg reported, which was slated to release later this year but was pushed to May 2026, which could depress console sales.

Crucial Quote

“In the bigger picture, this is a warning shot for consumers: physical goods, especially high-end hardware, are going to get more expensive,” van Dreunen told Forbes, warning that “companies need buffer room to manage profitability. That means higher prices.”

How Have Trump’s Tariffs Impacted Video Game Prices?

On the same day Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs, affecting nearly every country, Nintendo announced the long-awaited sequel to its Switch gaming console, the Switch 2, at a higher price than many gamers and analysts expected. The console carries a $450 price tag, 50% higher than the $300 the original Switch cost at launch in 2017. Joost van Dreunen, a New York University Stern School of Business professor who teaches about the business of video games, previously told Forbes the high prices were likely set so Nintendo could build a buffer to mitigate impacts of tariffs, as the Switch consoles are primarily produced in China and Vietnam. Some upcoming games for the Switch 2, including “Mario Kart World,” carry an $80 price tag, breaking the previous industry standard of $70 for games. Weeks later, Microsoft announced it would raise prices on its Xbox consoles by at least 20% per model, citing “market conditions” and the rising costs of production. The cheapest Xbox console, the Series S with 512 GB of storage, jumped in price from $299.99 to $379.99, while the most expensive model, the Xbox Series X 2TB Galaxy Special Edition, rose from $599.99 to $729.99. The company also announced it would sell some of its games for $80 in time for the holiday season, following Nintendo’s lead in breaking the previous $70 price standard.

Chief Critics

Matt Kahla, a gaming content creator with more than 660,000 TikTok followers, urged followers in a video to buy PlayStation consoles before any potential price increases and suggested Sony should keep prices below competitor companies to appeal to customers. DreamcastGuy, a video game streamer with more than 245,000 YouTube subscribers, said in a video Wednesday he fears video game prices won’t go back down even if tariffs ease, criticizing Sony and other gaming companies for considering price increases that could make gaming “prohibitively expensive.” Some gamers also criticized Sony’s possible price hikes on Reddit. “Remember when consoles became cheaper over time? Its been sooo long,” one of the top comments in a thread on Sony’s possible price hikes in the gaming subreddit states. Other gamers in the Reddit thread accused gaming companies of using the tariffs as an excuse to raise prices and said the higher prices are not “pro-consumer.”

How Much Did The U.s. And China Lower Tariff Rates?

The United States and China announced a 90-day pause on their increasingly high tariff rates earlier this week, marking a reprieve to their trade war. The U.S. tariff rate on Chinese goods will drop from 145% to 30%, while China’s tariffs on U.S. products will fall from 125% to 10%.

Further Reading

Microsoft Hikes Xbox Prices—Games Hit $80 And Console Prices Jump More Than 20% (Forbes)

US And China Agree To Roll Back Most Tariffs For 90 Days As Negotiations Continue (Forbes)