Japanese entertainment giants Nintendo and Sony are likely to raise prices on their game consoles in response to U.S. tariffs, according to the latest research from Bloomberg Intelligence.
American consumers would pay as much as 30% more for a Switch 2 or PlayStation 5 under the base-case scenario, which would imply pricing close to $590 for the soon-to-be-released Nintendo flagship machine or Sony’s PS5 Astro Bot bundle. Both devices are assembled in China, which is now subject to a 125% duty for shipments to the United States, although Nintendo also has an expanding production footprint in Vietnam, which has a 90-day reprieve from elevated tariffs.
Console makers are the most vulnerable players in the video game industry, said BI analyst Nathan Naidu, due to their hardware businesses and need to ship physical goods. The U.S. accounts for 29% of revenue for Tokyo-based Sony and 37% of sales for Kyoto-based Nintendo, he said. The market is indispensable for both companies: U.S. consumers drive global trends, and word-of-mouth recommendations boost entertainment product demand.
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