Contrary to the White House’s assertions, we consumers are indeed footing the bill for all these tariffs. Companies from across industries have been stopping sales or raising prices over the past month or so, and the chaos continues on.
It doesn’t help that the actual tariff situation is so volatile. President Donald Trump kept escalating the tariffs against China in particular, all the way up to 145%. Then, the administration made a deal with China to suspend most of the tariffs until August, but some tariffs still remain. As such, companies are scrambling to figure out the best way to protect their bottom lines and shareholder values—part of that strategy involves raising costs.
Gaming is no exception to this reality. Many gaming companies manufacture their components in China, which means their devices face tariffs if they ship to the U.S. Here’s where the situation currently stands with the biggest gaming companies.
Microsoft
Xboxes are apparently an appreciating asset. On May 1, Microsoft raised the prices on all Xbox consoles, and some Xbox accessories—including controllers and headsets. These price hikes were actually pretty steep: Both the standard and digital Series X models jumped by $100, while the 2TB model jumped a whopping $130. On April 30, Series X with 2TB of internal storage would have set you back $600. Now, you’re out $730.
Games aren’t wholly exempt here, either, but the news is a bit better: Existing titles will keep the same MSRP they did before the price hikes, while select new titles will cost $80 this holiday season.
To be fair, Microsoft doesn’t directly attribute the tariffs to these raised prices, instead referring to “market conditions and the rising cost of development.” However, seeing as tariffs are the driving force of current market conditions, it seems a safe assumption that Microsoft is recouping some increased costs due to these import fees.
Sony
Sony, too, raised the prices on its flagship consoles—but only in select markets.
The company increased the price of certain PS5 units in Europe, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. The price increases, as well as which console received them, depends on the region: Europe, for example, only saw an increase on the PS5 Digital Edition by €50, while the disc drive PS5 remained the same. Australia and New Zealand, on the other hand, were not so lucky, seeing price increases on both. New Zealand has the highest MSRP for a PS5 on the list at NZD $949.95 (or roughly $560 USD at this time).
However, that doesn’t mean those of us in the U.S. are safe from PS5 price increases. As reported by The Verge, Sony says that it expects tariffs to cost the company 100 billion yen ($681 million), and is considering both relocating manufacturing to the U.S., as well as raising costs for consumers.
Sony is a massive company, so that could involve raising prices on products other than PS5. However, the lack of a definitive answer on which products would be affected means that Sony may raise PS5 prices in the future.
Nintendo
Here’s the good news: Nintendo did not raise the MSRP of the Switch 2, nor any of its existing Switch consoles. The Switch 2 will remain $450, or $500 if you buy the Mario Kart World bundle.
However, Nintendo has reacted to the tariffs in other ways. First, it paused preorders for the Switch 2 in the U.S. and Canada, “to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions.” We already know it ultimately kept the Switch prices the same, but once Nintendo picked a new preorder date, it also announced new price increases for Switch 2 accessories.
The Pro Controller is now $15 more than it was, and while the Joy-Con 2 controllers are only $5 more, they now cost an astounding $95. The Switch 2 camera is also $55, when originally it was $50. The rest of the Switch 2 accessories remain the same.
PC gaming
PC gaming is a more complicated beast than console gaming. Unless you opt for a gaming laptop, you most likely are looking to build your own PC, which requires purchasing a number of parts—many of which are made in China. Luckily computers, phones, and PC cases were exempt from the full 145% tariff, but not other PC components.
According to PCMag, most PC parts haven’t been hit that hard by tariffs yet—at least when it comes to April prices. The outlet observed that PC cases, processors, and memory kits all had modest increases ($10, $15, and $3, respectively), while a liquid cooler unit actually dropped in price by $60.
However, they did find a concerning price increase when it came to one particularly important component: graphics cards. In January, the MSI SHADOW GeForce RTX 5070 Ti graphics card cost $750. In April, it cost $840, a $90 increase. PCMag found a similar trend across other popular graphics cards, with price increases ranging from $250 all the way to $750.
Graphics cards had been in hot demand long before Trump was even elected, largely due to their use in processing AI. Increased tariffs are now only putting more pressure on that product category.
Gaming laptops largely haven’t taken much of a hit yet, but Razer was one of the companies to pause direct sales to the U.S. last month.
You can’t predict the future
This is where the market stands now, but there’s no telling what will change in the coming days, weeks, and months. Sony could raise PS5 prices in the U.S. tomorrow; Nintendo could decide that the OG Switch needs to cost more now, too.
Nothing is certain, but one thing seems reasonable to assume: The prices you see today are the best they’re going to be for a while. If you’re holding out for the Xbox Series X to drop in cost, or crossing your fingers that Mario Kart World won’t actually cost $80 on release, you’re probably not going to be happy with the future.
Anything’s possible, but given where we are with tariffs and global markets, prices only seem to be going up. Remaining the same is perhaps the best we can hope for—unless you’re willing to give the secondhand market a try.
