ESA Warns Trump Tariffs Could “Harm” The Video Game Industry

With tariffs by the US set to take effect on Tuesday, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) expressed concern about how they may affect the video game industry. In a statement on its website, the ESA warned that import taxes on gaming devices would “negatively impact hundreds of millions of Americans.”

The ESA, the trade association representing most of the major publishers in gaming, said that tariffs would “harm the [game] industry’s significant contributions to the US economy.” The ESA ended the statement by saying it was looking forward to “working with the [Trump] Administration and Congress to find ways to sustain the economic growth” supported by the game industry. According to the ESA, total video game sales in the US reached $58.7 billion in 2024.

The US government is set to enact import taxes on Canada and China at 12 AM ET on February 4. Canada faces a 25% tariff on products imported to the US, while China, where technology products, including video game consoles, are manufactured, is looking at a 10% tariff. The Trump administration initially targeted Mexico, a hotspot for video game disc production, with a 25% import tax, but Trump agreed on Tuesday to halt planned tariffs on Mexico for a month. All three countries have announced their own countermeasures, including retaliatory tariffs against the US.

Trump also expressed intentions to enact tariffs on computer chips, a plan he still appeared keen on pursuing even after meeting with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Friday. On Monday morning, stocks for Nvidia, which designs and supplies graphics cards, fell as potential tariffs loomed over tech companies.

The tangible effect of tariffs on video game products is currently unknown, but Circana analyst Mat Piscatella predicted that prices for games–both in physical and digital formats–could rise as a result.

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