Trump’s New Tariffs Could Lead To More Expensive Video Games, Expert Says

One of the first executive orders that President Trump discussed on Monday after his inauguration was a new 25% tariff for Mexico and Canada that is expected to become effective February 1. A good amount of production infrastructure for video game discs happens in Mexico, so what’s the effect going to be for the end consumer? No one knows yet. And who knows if the order will even happen. But Circana analyst Mat Piscatella has now shared his thoughts on how the new tariffs could impact people who play video games, and he’s expecting higher prices overall.

Posting on social media, Piscatella said he expects to see a “sharp downtick” in the number of disc-based games that are released in the US, given that “much of that production infrastructure” is in Mexico. If companies still go ahead with making discs, then consumers can expect higher prices, he said. And not just for physical discs. Piscatella said he expects digital game prices to go up as well.

A digital game has no disc, of course, but companies may want to retain price parity all the same between physical and digital in the event of tariff-driven price increases, Piscatella said. He added that he doesn’t know how this will all actually shake out and is only theorizing for now. However, he said, “None of this is good for the physical video game market.”

Piscatella added that US-based video game companies could shift production out of Mexico and into the US, but not without “significant investment.” That’s probably not going to happen, in part because spending on physical games in the US is already half of what it was in 2021 and continues to decline “rapidly,” Piscatella said.

Trump has also suggested he could implement a 60% tariff on goods from China, which could have significant ramifications on video games and video game hardware. But many question if that’s even feasible or likely to happen.

Beyond video game price increases tied to potential tariffs, some in the video game business are wondering if GTA 6 could trigger a new industry-wide price increase on the MSRP for games, potentially up to $80 or above. The most recent price increase from $60 to $70 was embraced without issue, experts say, and another increase could follow.