President Trump’s tariffs are now affecting video games. PS5s and Xboxes are both manufactured in China, which means production costs are going to go up and that means they will have to raise prices on video games, consoles and anything else that comes with them.
Video game prices continue to rise in 2025. Some have quickly moved to $80 after being raised to $70 in 2020. If you don’t know, this is sort of a big deal for people because video games used to be $60 for at least 10 years plus in a row.
And in just six years they went from $60 to $70 and now to $80. I think that prices being raised is a good thing because we want better video games, but now they are starting to push their limit with how much people are willing to spend on a game, especially since not everyone has money to buy every video game they want.
“The flagship Xbox Series X will go for $599.99, up from $499.99. Both consoles debuted in 2020. The price of the special edition of the Xbox Wireless Controller will increase to $79.99 from $69.99,” Jordan Novet, CNBC’s technology correspondent, reported in May.
I personally think this is outrageous because they are raising the price of a five-year-old console by $100 dollars and the controllers by $70. I have the console myself and I think it’s worth just as much as the ps5 and playstation have actually lowered the prices of their consoles.
“Sony announced their Days of Play 2025 is kicking off on May 28 with deals for consumers. Sony will be selling their PlayStation 5 console with Call of Duty 6 bundle for $399.99, a $119.99 discount on the average sale price,” Nick Butler from Fox Business reported in May.
Playstation has lowered its prices by a ton, they lowered it more than xbox is trying to get for their older console model and the PS5 and Xbox series x are basically the same thing but made by different companies. Why would someone want to pay $600 dollars for something that came out five years ago when they could pay $400 dollars for the same thing made by a different company that also came out around five years ago.
In fact it’s not just Microsoft that’s raising their prices, It’s also Nintendo that wants to raise their game prices from $60 to $80 which is a huge jump, but it’s not crazy because they are just going along with other gaming companies.
“The Switch 2 will be sold at $449.99, which is up $150 from the original Switch. Game prices will also be jumping up in price going from $59.99 to $79.99.” Butler said.
I think NIntendo raising their prices is okay because they have been cheaper than PS5s and Xboxes for a while in the gaming industry, I feel like they are just trying to catch up and be on even ground with them.
Video games also have in game stores where you can buy cosmetics for your characters and more, and if they continue to raise the prices people will be spending less and less money on video games in a whole because it already costs $80 to even play the game and now they want you to spend $10 plus on more items in their game.
I personally think that at most $70 or $75 for a game is okay. It’s not that I hate prices going up, it’s just that I feel like they are trying to get the most they can for a game while not giving it their all to make games enjoyable and fun.
