Jun 27, 2019 10:24:00

Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft allege that raising tariffs to China will lead to higher prices for game consoles and adversely affect the entire industry

It is the US-China

trade war that became apparent as the two countries began to invoke each other's additional tariff measures after 2018 due to the deterioration of relations between China and the United States, but the game machine manufacturer is forced to raise the price by 25% I'm going. In response to this situation, three companies, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, have sent open letters to the government.

Console makers seek to avoid 25% price bump driven by Trump's trade war | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/20019/06/console-makers-warn-trumps-trade-war-could-increase-hardware-prices-25/

Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony speak out against Trump's tariffs on consoles-Polygon
https://www.polygon.com/2019/6/26/18760087/trump-china-tariffs-nintendo-microsoft-sony

US President Trump announced in May 2019 that it would raise tariffs on Chinese products worth $ 200 billion (about 22 trillion yen) from 10% to 25%. The US government has ever triggered additional tariffs, but those triggered in 2018 have 'shoes', 'jewels', etc. to limit their direct impact on American consumers. Only certain manufacturing industries were subject to tariff increases. However, as the tariff increase will include all products manufactured in China, there are concerns that it will have a major impact in many industries.

In response to such aggressive measures by the US government, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have sent an open letter (PDF) to the government asking them not to include game machines in raising the customs duty.

One of the reasons why game console makers such as Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are opposed to 'raising customs duty on imported goods from China' is that more than 96% of game consoles are manufactured in China. It is possible to move production to other countries under the influence of tariff increases, but this would 'may cause major disruption to the supply chain and exceed the originally planned costs.' In addition, the game consoles are already manufactured with tight margins, so there seems to be no time to move the manufacturing base.

The open letter is signed by the vice presidents of three major game console manufacturers such as Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, and is raising consumer duties, game developers, retailers, and game console manufacturers about raising tariffs to China. In addition to endangering thousands of high value, challenging jobs in the United States, it has the potential to do more than just the gaming industry. '

Basically, game consoles are sold at a price slightly higher than the manufacturing cost, so if import duties are to be raised, the impact will be directly borne by the 'very price sensitive consumers'. It will be inevitable. In other words, a 25% increase in tariffs will directly increase the price of game consoles by 25%. An open letter says, 'If a 25% price increase occurs, gaming consoles are likely to be out of reach for many American homes trying to buy new gaming consoles this holiday season.' It is written that.

In an open letter, the data from

Trade Partners Worldwide is cited, and by raising the tariff, the game industry alone loses $ 350 million annually to the US economy, and is a third-party accessory maker / game maker・ Point out that retailers may have ripple effects. In addition, it is certain that the 65,000 American workers employed in the game industry will be affected.

The three companies also claim that the price increase of game consoles will also limit the technological innovations that game console makers have introduced, such as Microsoft's Kinect, Nintendo's Wii remote control, and Sony's PlayStation VR.

The gaming industry is not the only one to sue for the threat of increasing tariffs. Hundreds of companies

claim that rising tariffs will cause prices to rise in the US, and it is clear that many companies are concerned about the impact of rising tariffs on the United States.

In addition, the United States government is to announce the details of the additional tariff measures after a meeting of Trump president and China Xi Jinping Jintao, which is carried out in the G20 summit to be held in Osaka, Japan.