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.
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.
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
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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