The conflict between the U.S. and China has impacted the tech industry, notably impacting the business of Chinese mobile smart device manufacturer Huawei and any companies that deal with it. Now, newly proposed taxes on video game consoles are bringing the issues over to the gaming industry. The Trump administration has proposed $300 billion in tariffs but, as reported by Kotaku, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have made a joint statement opposing the move.
The three companies argue that the tariffs will cause disproportionate harm to business overall and the joint letter specifies three ways that the proposed taxes will harm the video game industry:
Timing of these tariffs couldn’t come at a worse time for major home gaming companies. We’re on the cusp of a shift into the next generation of home consoles with Sony’s PS5 and Microsoft’s Project Scarlett due sometime in FY 2020. These additional taxes could stifle the early and overall adoption by raising the cost significantly. Not just focusing on the consoles that Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo produce, the letter points out small and medium-sized software developers in America will be harmed.
The original product list in the proposal from the administration mentions video games, gaming controllers, arcade machines, and even board games. The letter doesn’t make an argument for Trump’s administration to completely stop the tariffs or even to remove all mentions of games, but to remove a specific subheading that covers video game consoles. The specified subheading is 9504.50.00 and it lists “Video game consoles and machines, other than those of heading 9504.30.” Subheading 9504.30 covers coin or token-operated games for arcade, table, or parlor.
There’s no telling when the tariffs go might into effect, but the original report suggests that progress could be made at the upcoming summit taking place in Japan this weekend, June 29 and 30. While the seven page letter makes a lengthy argument for removal of that subheading, even explaining how the tariffs wouldn’t be effective in this fight against China, it isn’t likely that gaming will be getting special treatment. The hope is that the subheadings for video games would be removed along with others in a massive modification of the proposal, or that the conversation between the U.S. and China improves enough that the entire proposal is scrubbed.
You can read the full text of the letter here.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.