A PS4 price increase is a possibility of President Trump’s proposed China tariffs are approved. Following a joint letter filed by Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft, the creators of the popular PlayStation consoles (and goodness knows how many video games) are warning the U.S. Government that these tariffs, if implemented, would have a deleterious effect on the U.S. economy. What’s more, Sony may very well have to increase the price of the PlayStation 4 to compensate for the added cost.
“We believe, and therefore have told the U.S. government, that higher tariffs would ultimately damage the U.S. economy,” said Sony Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
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President Trump had already increased import tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods from 10% to 25% back in May 2019. Sony has stated that it has largely been unaffected by this particular round of tariff hikes, but other tariffs still being negotiated could very well result in a PS4 price increase.
Sony has said that it has no definitive plans for a PS4 price increase at the moment as the discussions on tariffs are still ongoing between the two countries. However, Sony is studying several possible options to compensate for any added costs that it may incur if tariffs affecting its particular products go up. One of the possibilities to deal with increase import tariffs is to simply raise the price of the PlayStation 4 and ask consumers to take on some of the financial burden.
The United States and China will be continuing the discussion on tariffs this week to resolve the ongoing trade conflict. While it’s important to make sure everyone gets a fair deal, gamers throughout the United States will surely be hoping that they won’t have to bear any further burden on a hobby that can already be pretty darn expensive.
