Undoubtedly, there are things in this world we wish would “go away and not bother us,” and one of those things is politics. If you live in certain parts of the world, including the United States, the political spectrum has been nothing short of an overwhelming force of negativity, hate, and stupidity. Lots of stupidity. That’s arguably why we need video games more than ever because they offer us an escape from such things, and looking forward to things like the Nintendo Switch 2 gives us hope for the future because we can “bury ourselves” within it and its gaming lineup whenever we need to “get away” from what the “real world is doing.”
However, the political world has reared its ugly head once again while also threatening the gaming space once more. You may recall that when the Nintendo Switch 2 was announced, it had a fixed console price of $450, and its games would have a range of $70-$80, depending on the title. Then, right after the announcements were made, a certain “political figure” revealed that they would be creating tariffs to slap on numerous countries, including Japan. Nintendo was legit worried about this, and so they paused pre-orders for the Switch 2 in the US. They eventually said that things would continue unimpeded, but those tariffs are back in the limelight, and some are wondering if the Switch 2’s gaming lineup will be affected by it.
As noted by TheGamer, there may be a 25% tariff hitting Japan soon, and it’s within Japan that the physical cartridges and game key cards are produced. As such, Nintendo has to up the price of games in the United States to negate what is going on with the tariffs. How much of an increase is unknown, but it is something that could legitimately pull people off of buying games “until the tariffs are gone.”
The good news is that the tariffs aren’t going into effect until August 1st, which means this month is clear, including a certain big arrival with Donkey Kong in less than ten days. It’s also more than possible that these tariffs will get delayed again or canceled fully. After all, this “political figure” is anything but stable or sane.
We don’t know what Nintendo will do, so it’s something to monitor. It’s also important to note that this would likely affect Sony, too, which has also been holding out on price increases for their items.
