Trump Tax Set to Increase PS5 Price, U.S. Factory Seems Unlikely
Art of the Deal, baby.
US President Donald Trump’s chaotic attempts to allegedly make America great again have, if nothing else, made for interesting watching. Trump’s obsession with import taxes, known as “tariffs” in American English, has already forced Sony to increase the price of PS5 in select markets, and it looks likely that American consumers, too, will be set to pay more for consoles and games in future, despite what the President says.
As reported by Variety, Sony just published its latest financial report, and predictably, Trump’s tax is going to burn a hole in its bottom line. In a Q&A session, Sony Group CEO Hiroki Totoki revealed that the firm is facing a loss of $700 million in its hardware business due to the import tariffs placed on its various devices.
Trump has maintained that he is wielding taxes like a cudgel to force companies like Sony to manufacture their products locally in the US, building factories for Americans to work in, thus making the nation great, again. Sadly, the erratic nature of the current administration makes such long-term business moves unlikely, at least in the near term, a subject which Totoki spoke to: “Hardware, of course, can be produced locally. I think that would be an efficient strategy.”
Totoki goes on to say that PS5S are already “being manufactured in many areas” and that any decisions about moving production to the US would need to be “considered moving forward.” Currently, PS5’s are primarily manufactured in China, where Trump drastically reduced tariffs from 145% to 30%, and assembled in Japan. Considering how many years it would take to create similar manufacturing capacity in America, along with massive financial investment, Sony would probably be better off just taking the hit and waiting for the current administration to fizzle out.