Last week, Nintendo made the unprecedented move of delaying US Switch 2 preorders to "assess" the impact of Donald Trump's massive tariffs on the countries where the console is produced. Before most of those tariffs were recently delayed for 90 days, many were wondering if the company may be mulling a last-minute increase in the Switch 2's $450 asking price to account for those import taxes.

While industry analysts think that kind of immediate price increase is unlikely, they warn that Trump's tariffs could have longer-term impacts on Switch 2 pricing and supplies in the US for years to come.

Already baked in

DFC Intelligence CEO David Cole, for instance, said in a recent analyst note that the company is currently modeling "a 20 percent price increase over the next two years" across all video game hardware thanks to "broader macroeconomic challenges." In the case of the Switch 2, though, Cole clarified that "we believe much of the 20 percent increase was already baked into the $450 price," which Nintendo is "not likely" to raise at this point.

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Framework, the designers and sellers of the modular and repairable Framework Laptop 13 and other products, announced today that it would be "temporarily pausing US sales" on some of its laptop configurations as a result of new tariffs put on Taiwanese imports by the Trump administration. The affected models will be removed from Framework's online store for now, and there's no word on when buyers can expect them to come back.

"We priced our laptops when tariffs on imports from Taiwan were 0 percent," the company responded to a post asking why it was pausing sales. "At a 10 percent tariff, we would have to sell the lowest-end SKUs at a loss."

"Other consumer goods makers have performed the same calculations and taken the same actions, though most have not been open about it," Framework said. Nintendo also paused US preorders for its upcoming Switch 2 console last week after the tariffs were announced.

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This morning's announcement that Nintendo is delaying US preorders for the Switch 2 immediately increased the salience of President Trump's proposed wide-reaching import tariffs for millions of American Nintendo fans. Additionally, the Entertainment Software Association—a lobbying group that represents the game industry's interests in Washington—is warning that the effects of Trump's tariffs on the gaming world won't stop with Nintendo.

"There are so many devices we play video games on," ESA senior vice president Aubrey Quinn said in an interview with IGN just as Nintendo's preorder delay news broke. "There are other consoles... VR headsets, our smartphones, people who love PC games; if we think it's just the Switch, then we aren't taking it seriously.

"This is company-agnostic, this is an entire industry," she continued. "There's going to be an impact on the entire industry."

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New 25 percent tariffs on all foreign car imports into the United States went into effect this week as President Trump ignited his new trade war. It has caused something of a rush at dealerships around the country as customers descend on existing stock in an attempt to beat looming price increases of thousands of dollars. Now we're starting to see how the automakers are reacting.

Employee pricing for all

Ford is in the rather enviable position of having the least exposure to the new vehicle tariff than all but Tesla; less than 20 percent of the cars, trucks, and SUVs that Ford sells in the US are imported from abroad. And it will lean into that with a new ad campaign with the slogan "From America, For America," which launches today. (Note that this does not take into account the separate parts tariff that goes into effect before May 2.)

Never mind the slogan, though. The campaign extends Ford's "A plan" pricing, which in plain English is its employee discount, to all its customers. The blue oval is offering A plan pricing on most 2024 and 2025 vehicles, including the all-electric F-150 Lightning and the Mustang Mach-E, as well as its various hybrids.

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