The trade association behind the CES tech event has warned that Donald Trump’s tariffs could lead to console prices rising by nearly 70% in the US.
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) published a report in January by the Trade Partnership Worldwide LLC (TPW), which studied the potential impact of the US president’s tariffs based on his campaign promises.
Now the CTA has published an updated version of the TPW’s report which assesses the impact of Trump’s actual tariffs now they’ve been confirmed.
The report focuses on consumer tech, including video game consoles, laptops, tables, smartphones, monitors, computer accessories and connected devices.
A universal 10% tariff implemented by Trump went into effect on April 5. Other ‘reciprocal’ tariffs were also announced for numerous countries but most of these were paused for 90 days on April 9, with the exception of China, which currently has tariffs of 145%.
According to the TPW’s report (via Tom’s Hardware), if the pause on tariffs ends in July and the higher rates are applied as they currently stand, the price of tech goods could rise drastically in the US, with estimated increases ranging from 24% on desktop PCs and 30.8% on smartphones to a huge 69.4% on video game consoles.
The report claims that because 87% of video game consoles come from China, its 145% rate means the average retail cost of a games console could potentially rise by as much as $428 per unit. It also estimates that this would result in a loss of $12 billion of consumer ‘spending power’ on consoles due to higher prices.
The global economy has already seen price increases in the video game console market, even before many of Trump’s tariffs are set to kick in.
Last week Microsoft announced it was raising prices on Xbox consoles globally, with the US price of a 1TB Xbox Series X going up from $499 to $599, and a 2TB version going up from $599 to $729. Xbox Series S consoles, meanwhile, have been given an $80 price increase.
Last month Sony announced that it was increasing the prices of its PS5 consoles for the second time in some regions. The PS5 Digital Edition now costs €499 in Europe, up from its previous price of €449 (and €399 before that). Meanwhile, in the UK the console now costs £429.99, up from its previous £389.99 (an increase of £40).
The US is one of the few countries that have yet to be affected by PS5 price increases, but with Trump’s global tariffs still on track to come into play in July it remains to be seen whether this will remain the case.
Nintendo delayed the opening of pre-orders for its upcoming Switch 2 console, confirming that the delay was caused by US economic uncertainty.
It eventually opened US pre-orders in late April without changing the console’s price, but it did raise the price of some Switch 2 accessories in the US and warned that “other adjustments to the price of any Nintendo product are also possible in the future depending on market conditions”.
