- President Donald Trump is considering a 25% tariff on goods from Mexico
- Many disc-based physical game releases are manufactured in the country
- One analyst says this could raise the prices of both physical and digital games
President Donald Trump has confirmed that his administration is considering imposing 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting February 1. This will add additional tax on goods imported from these countries and could have serious consequences for players.
As explained by Mat Piscatella, managing director of games at market research firm Circana, a significant portion of the physical disc-based games released in the United States are made in Mexico. A 25% tariff will increase the cost of bringing these games to the US for sale, which will likely be passed on to consumers.
Piscatella expects higher prices if the tariffs are brought in, and even digital games will be affected as publishers try to maintain price parity across both versions. He also states that manufacturing infrastructure is unlikely to be moved to the US, citing the high cost of doing so and a lack of incentive to invest following the rapid decline in annual sales of video game software in the US since 2021.
Despite a recent increase to a standard price of $70, game prices have remained relatively constant and significantly below inflation for the past two decades. With game development costs skyrocketing, margins are tighter than ever, and the addition of tariffs could be the tipping point that sends prices soaring.
Could we start seeing games go to $90 or even $100 in the coming months? We will have to wait and see, but some analysts are already predicting that it was long overdue Grand Theft Auto 6 could be the first title to break the “$70 barrier” – and that’s before even considering the potential impact of tariffs.
Any increase in prices is likely to hurt physical release sales, which are already relatively low.
