Not just Switch 2: ESA warns Trump’s tariffs will hurt the entire game industry
-
This post did not contain any content.
It’s gonna be the golden age of piracy ya’ll.
Time and time again they keep “fixing” piracy with good access (Netflix, steam) and then spend the next decade(s) ruining it.
-
To be fair and I say that as a lifelong gamer: That‘s hardly one of my biggest concerns. I‘ve experienced ridiculous pricing policies in both software and hardware over the last couple years, preventing many of us to get their hands on the latest tech. Like, I will never own a high end computer. But I will also likely never own a house.
What I‘m trying to say is, gaming has been in an awkward sport for a very long time and it‘s still… fine. Paradoxically it‘s cheaper than ever to have a good time with games and the choices are endless even on a tiny budget. It‘ll be fine. We‘re facing much bigger problems in other areas right now.
Gaming has not been 'fine' since:
Hypercaptialist corporate acquisitions have basically bought all recognizable IP/dev studios and manage them under an increasingly smaller number of actual parent companies who own increasingly huge numbers of IPs/dev studios, and then basically all of these companies are absurdly mismanaged by corporate nonces who make bank, and game devs are routinely overworked and underpaid.
MTX became the new norm / the mobile gaming scene exploded (basically concurrent phenomena)
Nvidia/Unreal decided that actually, having efficiently coded lighting that runs on moderately priced hardware is stupid, what you actually want is horrifically inefficient lighting that runs on absurdly expensive hardware, and then Nvidia plasters a bunch of AI Frame Gen/Upscale all over that foundation to further enforce their monopoly.
... Like, yes, there are still great indie or AA games, but those are the exception to the rule.
The overall industry is a fucking nightmare for anyone who works in it, and from the consumer perspective, we keep getting overpriced, overproduced iterations of the same basic game... sandwiched on the other side by an avalanche of garbage tier indie slop/scams. Something like 80 to 90 % of the games listed on Steam are that, and they are constantly fucking with their algorithms to be able to actually detect them and filter them.
... It also doesn't even matter if you personally will never own a high end gaming PC.
All the AAA game dev studios need them to develop the games. And now those are all 30% more expensive, at least. Oh and all of the employees cost of living just jumped 30% as well, I am totally sure that their wages will increase to compensate this. Oh wait no, they'll actually lay them off even faster and exploit them even harder.
Game dev in America is going to largely grind to a halt, with again, the exception of a few, now even smaller in number, amount of new games that can be developed with much less powerful hardware, or an even smaller number of AAA titles that quintuple down on MTX, addiction based pricing models.
But uh hey, basically every other industry in America is utterly fucked too.
Leisure/luxury expenditures crater the hardest during a depression. Which is what we are looking at. Not a recession for a year or two, no, this is a gonna be a decade of you learning how to cook with rice and beans, sewing your clothes back together because you can't buy new ones, where your Xmas gift to your kid is decent shoes, not a game console.
-
Yep. Even if you're buying a product which is by meaningful standards "100% American made," consider the invisible costs. The cost of the packaging that they use, the cost of the supplies/equipment they use in production and the upkeep required to maintain them, the cost of the infrastructure they use for logistics and operations, etc.
All these less visible dependencies affect the cost of doing business and can still be impacted by tariffs if anything comes from overseas, even if the product itself is just a bottle of maple syrup made in Vermont.
This came up on my feed the other day…
Made in America stickers which are made in China are now 34% more expensive.
-
Let's try and look at silver linings
What would be great is if price hikes cause people to purchase games that are worth it causing developers to release complete and feature rich games without further abysmal monetization statagies.
-
... or, we get lots and lots of 2D, sidescrolling, pixel-art games with anime tiddy cover art.
-
Why is the European Space Agency is speaking up to this topic
What else can they do while waiting for launch windows other than play vidya?
-
Care to elaborate?
-
This post did not contain any content.
!lemmysilver
-
!lemmysilver
Thank you for voting. You can vote again in 24 hours. leaderboard
-
This post did not contain any content.
Fuck Trump!
Just sayin'
-
Good question! Hope this helps:
There isn’t a single live tracker that puts Trump’s first and second terms side by side, but we can compare available data:
First Term (2017–2021):
- Golf rounds played: Approximately 261 rounds — about one every 5.6 days.
- Visits to Trump properties: 428 days out of 1,461, which is nearly 29% of his presidency.
- Source: TrumpGolfTrack.com
Second Term (as of February 17, 2025):
- Golf rounds played: At least 5 rounds in the first 28 days — again, one every 5.6 days.
- Percentage of days golfing: About 17.86% of his time in office so far.
- Source: PinkNews article
Soooo: Trump’s pace of golfing in his second term is nearly identical to his first — he’s kept the same rhythm of golf every 5–6 days.
That’s wild shit right there.
Thanks this is exactly what I was looking for. I guess you can say he is consistent. I'm glad he didn't let anything affect his golf. I wonder if his scores improved.
-
Golf isn’t that expensive. Not more expensive than any other hobby to be fair. He makes it expensive because he only plays in his own courses and overcharges the hell out of The White House. What they spend on renting golf carts alone is a fortune. He’s a crook, but he’s so open about it that it really doesn’t affect him. Any other president would be torn to pieces about this, because they likely have shame and would try to hide actions like this. Trump normalizes depravity.
Also it was that fact that he stopped in the middle of whatever crisis or serious event to fly somewhere and play golf and take a day off. Them do it again a few days later while the crisis is looming. Like flying to Cancun in a state blackout, but people don't care.
-
System shared this topic
