Yahoo Finance

It's time now for tech support, our weekly deep dive into all things technology. According to the Consumer Technology Association, the price of video game consoles could rise by a shocking 69% due to tariffs. Compare that to just 34% for laptops and tablets. Joining me now to break down why gaming is getting more expensive. We've got Yahoo Finance tech editor Dan Howley. Dan, we got to know how are game companies already raising prices on consoles here?

Yeah, this is something we're we're like, like you said, already starting to see and uh the uh CTA uh CEO, Gary Shapiro, saying that tariffs are taxes paid by Americans going against uh President Trump's kind of continued uh uh statement that it's not a tax uh on Americans. And so what what we're seeing here from companies is uh Microsoft last week, they announced they're raising the price on their consoles by $100. Uh so if you have an old Xbox Series X, and by old, I mean five years old, uh it is now worth more theoretically uh than it was when you bought it, uh because of that that price increase. Now, obviously, you wouldn't be able to sell it for the same amount, but I digress. Uh Nintendo is also raising prices on accessories for some of its uh uh systems. The Switch 2, uh raising prices to as much as 89 bucks for some controllers, and then games uh from Nintendo are going to be 80 bucks, some games. Uh and Microsoft said that some Xbox titles will be as much as $80. So, obviously, these are price increases that uh are not uh impacted by the uh exemptions. The exemptions only cover things like laptops, desktops, things like that. They do not cover video game consoles. Uh the holidays are going to be approaching, uh and with higher prices, you can imagine some people may just decide, look, I'm not going to pay. Uh, we're going to have to wait until prices come back down.

We also got some news here from Take 2 Interactive. GTA 6, Grand Theft Auto 6, that will not release until May of 2026. So what does that mean for the game industry here?

Uh it's not good, that's for sure. Uh Grand Theft Auto uh was supposed to be one of the tent poles for the year. Uh that and the Switch 2. They were supposed to be kind of a way for the gaming industry to kind of get right in in 2025. Uh and, you know, look, it's just not happening now. Uh the idea that uh this game is is being delayed is not good for the industry itself, not good for console sales, things like that. People, you know, GTA is one of those games that gets people out to go buy a console. They they hear about it, they say, well, it's it's a Grand Theft Auto game, let me go get it. And so, uh this delay means that people won't necessarily be doing that into the holidays, perhaps in 2026 they will, uh but this console cycle started in 2020. They usually last about seven to eight years. Next year is 2026, it's the tail end of of uh you would think the tail end of this uh console cycle. So, you know, it's it's hard to tell what that would mean as far as sales go, but uh for Grand Theft Auto, look, it's it's a matter for for Take 2 of just ensuring that the quality is there that they want. And this is a property that has sold more than $6 billion, or generated more than $6 billion in revenue for GTA 5. Uh also, I think it's something like 13 years old at this point or maybe uh maybe not that old, but uh it certainly came out when the the PlayStation 3 was still around. And so, uh this is something that uh or PlayStation 4, I can't recall, uh but the the fact that they are holding this off means that they are aware of how important it is to their company and they want to ensure that the quality is there uh day one, and that, you know, the online element is going to be there. That is just continuously driving revenue for them. So, obviously a huge deal, but for the gaming industry more broadly, it's certainly a letdown.