Massive price increases, layoffs in the video game industry when the trade war escalates

New Nintendo Switch 2 Video Gaming consoles will be exhibited on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, at a media preview event in New York. [AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey]

The video game industry has announced in the USA and worldwide significant price increases to the current tariff wars initiated by the Trump administration, and the most important consoles announced in the last month of $ 100, and PlayStation and Xbox increase the price for individual games to 80 US dollars.

The price increases with a massive cleaning of the industry, with thousands of layoffs last year, paired with the full shutter from studios. All of this has been deregistered because video game actors are supposed to stand up against the conglomerates in the tenth month of their current strike.

The Nintendo Switch 2 console, which is to be published this summer, delayed the pre-orders for the system in order to evaluate the effects of both paused tariffs and the one against China. They claim that the price of $ 449.99, a considerable jump of $ 299 for the original switch, is not increased further, but this accessories for the new console would look up to the top. The company has already sent hundreds of thousands of units to the USA in anticipation of the tariffs.

The Xbox manufacturer Microsoft announced last week that it would increase the Xbox price by $ 80, from $ 299.99 to $ 379.99 and at the same time the Xbox series X to 599.99 US dollars and a plus of $ 100. In his announcement, she also announced price increases in Great Britain, EU and Australia and explained that further announcements on the price increases in the rest of the world would follow. Microsoft also indicated that individual game prices were raised before the Christmas shopping season, and added that accessories such as headsets and controllers would also record price increases.

Microsoft's announcements followed Sony in the previous month that they increased the recommended sales price of PlayStation 5 in the USA by $ 100 and achieved price increases in the EU, in the Middle East, in Africa, in Australia and in New Zealand.

While the tariffs blame to blame, the main actors in the industry continue to earn money over the fist. According to Microsoft's latest quarterly results, the company generated sales of $ 70.07 billion with a net result of $ 25.8 billion. This included an increase in personal computer unit by 6 percent, which includes laptops and Xbox.

The price increase is just one aspect of the changing state of the industry, the studios close a few days after the publication of new games, while others do not even remain open until the games are published for the public.

One part of the gaming studios that were closed included: Monolith Productions, Freejam, Counterplay Games, Toadman Interactive and Fizbin, Midnight, Mountainsop Studios, Player First, Wumbemery, Ready at Dawn, London Studio and Pixelopus Games.

The closure of the studios was coupled with persistent layoffs in the open studios. Microsoft has announced a non -mentioned number of workers who concentrate on the Xbox Division, which is said to come later in May. This would make 6 rounds of layoffs at Microsoft last year alone.

Electronic Arts announced on May 1 of 300 to 400 people, with 100 of them at respawn, a large studio for the popular APEX legends, Titanfall and Star Wars Jedi. The layoffs followed the announcement of the cancellation of the Titanfall series and last year are the third round of discharge at EA.

The role-playing game studio Bioware Studios announced that the dismissal of 20 workers with the announcement announced that it would not require “support from the full studio” for the next game in the series.

In a report that has just been published by the Game Developers Conference, in which 3,000 game developers, mainly from the USA, interviewed: “The main reason why companies have restructured their employees for layoffs is the restructuring, followed by falling income and market shifts.”

The reported added: “This applies to those who even received an explanation: 19% of the developers told us that” no reason “was” given “for a layoff.

Since all of this gives up, screen actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-ATTRA) continue to struggle the strike of video players, which will start in his tenth month in 3 more weeks. There was only a handful of strike posts that have been held only once a month for a few hours this year.

At the same time, the bureaucracy continues to sign interim agreements behind the back of the workers. These agreements that the employees are not allowed to vote take from the strike and send them back to work, with the workers, whereby the workers and sisters have essentially declined. So far, the SAG-ATTRA bureaucracy has announced the signing of 180 such agreements.

In addition, SAG-ATTRA has teamed up with other large unions to support Trump's legal policy of the right-wing merchant war and incorrectly presented them as the defense of American jobs. In an explanation, she explained that the union “supports efforts to increase production and streaming production in the USA. We will continue to work for guidelines that strengthen our competitive position, accelerate economic growth and create good mid -range jobs for American employees”.

The global game industry is one of the most profitable. In 2024, the industry achieved total sales of $ 184.3 billion, which has an increase of 0.2 percent compared to the previous year.

This shows the deliberate intention of the huge conglomerates to put the costs of the nationalist trade war precisely on the back of employees and consumers. The same wealthy managers who have financed and obliged the potential fuker use and will continue to use the tariff war as a means of constant restructuring and reduction in order to maximize profits in an industry that already connects all other entertainment industries.

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