Sony said that there will be a potential price increase of its PlayStation consoles if the White House continues to apply higher tariffs on Chinese-made video game devices.
The Japanese tech giant warned that such actions would hurt consumers.
“We believe, and therefore have told the U.S. government, that higher tariffs would ultimately damage the U.S. economy,” Hiroki Totoki, Sony’s financial chief, told The Wall Street Journal.
President Donald Trump increased import tariffs on $200 billion USD of Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent in May. Trump also threatened to add tariffs on an additional $300 billion USD of Chinese exports, including PlayStation consoles, if negotiations fall apart with China.
Currently, the two superpowers are resuming talks to ease the trade war.
Totoki said Sony has not yet decided on how to react to the ever-growing tariffs. His company was studying its options including releasing the financial burden on consumers with price increase.
The PlayStation business is incredibly profitable for Sony, with the current-gen PlayStation 4 console having just reached lifetime sales of 100 million in record time. The Japanese tech giant plans to introduce the next-generation PlayStation console sometime in 2020.
“[Tariffs] haven’t affected us that much, but we should remain vigilant about the potential risk,” said Totoki.
In June, Sony partnered with rivals Nintendo and Microsoft to submit a letter to the office of U.S. trade representative to make the case against tariffs on devices manufactured in China.
Source: WSJ
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
