How will tariffs affect gaming?

Our readers who live in the United States are quickly becoming accustomed to the word tariff. What does it mean for those who enjoy board or video games? Also, today is our anniversary! Celebrate with us by reading all the latest gaming news, and telling a friend (or five) about this newsletter. Let’s go!

Trouble with Tariffs

Slate recently published an article about how President Trump’s recent tariffs could hurt your favorite hobby. The article touches on board games, which are mostly produced in China and a recent quote from Arcane Wonders president Robert Geistlinger who says “board games are about to get more expensive.”

BoardGameWire recently interviewed a number of game designers for their thoughts on what tariffs will do to the industry. They predicted U.S. players would see fewer releases, spending freezes and rising prices. T Caires, a director at Hachette Boardgames USA broke it down in terms players can understand:

Basically, anyone that has played any economic resource board game can tell you that the world economy is going to take several rounds to recover from what’s happening, unless the event card triggering these effects is discarded, as we’d say in gaming … The implications on these tariffs and policies are far reaching and not something to be shrugged off or hand waved as easily solvable by just doing X or Y. Business as we know it and the products as we know them are going to have to change, as well as the expectations of costs, timing, and quality

… This is an industry made and run by people that want to play games and do it for the love of gaming, not to get rich. There’s a lot of smaller companies that are running very slim on their margins that are going to have some very rough months ahead of them.

Tettix Games founder Judson Cowan, whose game Deep Regrets completed a successful Kickstarter campaign last summer told BoardGameWire:

The tariff situation is so volatile that planning is now nearly impossible. My board games left China mid February, when there were no tariffs in effect. Since then, a 10% tariff has been implemented and now a further 10% tariff has been implemented, meaning between the time the games left port in China and when they will arrive in a week or two, my business has lost about $25,000 that there was no way to plan for.

Board game producers are not the only ones feeling the heat. Tariffs with Mexico could mean less video games receive a physical release. Mat Piscatella, Video Game Industry Analyst at Circana recently commented about this on Bluesky:

Gaming hardware will also see prices increase. The CEOs of Best Buy and Target both predict tariffs will push consumer prices up and fast. If you hope to pick up one of the latest AMD or Nvidia graphics cards that released last week, speed is of the essence before a 20% increase is passed on to the consumers. This is partially why both cards sold out last week in a matter of minutes.

If you are looking for some good news, Nintendo’s Switch 2 is mostly produced outside of China. This means its sale price should be safe…for now.

Two years of The Games Letter

Two years ago on Mario day (Mar 10), The Games Letter website officially launched. Since then, we have posted or sent nearly 150 updates to our subscribers and supporters. We recently announced our new feature, Spend the Night, and supporters will be able to read the first review soon. We have more big plans for year three, including getting back to our board game roots. 

Whether you have been a subscriber since we announced the newsletter, or you signed up within the last week, we just want to say thank you. If you want to follow us outside of this newsletter, you can find us on Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. If you enjoy The Games Letter, please tell your friends about us, or become a supporter for $5 a month.

Side Quests (more stories worth reading)

🏛️ Golden Eye, Angry Birds and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare headline the 2025 finalists for the Video Game Hall of Fame. 

😟 Discord is “in talks to become a public company.” Many believe this will make the service worse. 

🧟 The Last of Us writer and director Neil Druckmann says “don’t bet on” a third installment in the series. 

🏆 Thank Goodness You're Here won the United Kingdom Game of the Year.

🎸 Industry veterans are reviving Acclaim, a publisher that filed for bankruptcy in 2004. One of the most notable members on their advisory board: wrestler Jeff Jarrett.

🤖 After being forced to confirm it used AI in its most recent Call of Duty game, Activision is being accused of using AI to promote fake games. 

🏖️ Death Stranding 2: On the Beach got a new 10-minute trailer and a release date of June 26, 2025 on PlayStation 5.

📺 Jackbox Games, the studio behind the party game You Don’t Know Jack, is bringing its library of games to smart TVs.

📱 After releasing a remastered Suikoden I & II last week, the franchise announced a new anime and a mobile game. 

🎮 Sony announced players can register for a new centralized beta program for PlayStation and PC.

👩🏼‍⚖️ Nintendo had a big week in the courts, winning a piracy lawsuit against a French file-sharing site and claiming a $7 million judgement in a counterfeit amiibo lawsuit. 

🏆 The 2025 BAFTA Games Award nominations were announced with Senua's Saga: Hellblade II leading the way with 11 nominations. 

🤖 30% of game developers believe AI will play an "extremely important role" in quality assurance testing.

🚓 Rockstar announced that the Grand Theft Auto series has sold over 440 million games, and that the company acquired a support studio and renamed it Rockstar Australia.

🛹 A next-generation remake of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 is coming this summer. 

🎮 Sony is releasing a limited edition The Last of Us PlayStation 5 controller. 

👾 Bandai Namco is celebrating Pac-Man's 45th birthday with museum displays, live experiences, and an official cookbook.

📈 Round numbers: Monster Hunter Wilds sold 8 million copies in three days. 

⛄ If you can’t get enough of the 2024 holiday film Hot Frosty, there is now a tabletop role-playing game loosely based on the film. 

New Releases this week:

Check out our article on 12 New Games to Play in March.

3/11: Wanderstop (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
3/12: The Phantom (PlayStation, Switch and PC)
3/14: WWE 2K25 (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)

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