Summary
Retro handheld console makerAnbernichas recently suspended all shipments to the United States in the wake of Donald Trump’s international tariff hikes. While gamers will still be able to purchase products that are currently already in the US, importing these goods from China will no longer be an option for Americans.
A few weeks ago, US President Donald Trump imposed trade tariffs on the whole world, shaking global markets and manufacturing chains. These tariffs include countries that manufacture many consoles, such as China and Vietnam. Some time after that,Trump exempted some electronics from tariffs, such as smartphones, but the same was not done for video game consoles. At the moment, China currently has tariffs of up to 145% on imports, which makes it difficult for Americans to import goods from the country.
Now, Anbernic, a popular manufacturer that makes cheap Game Boy clones, has suspended all US orders from China. According toThe Verge, the company blamed the “changes in US tariff policies” and clarified that customers can still purchase goods currently stored in American warehouses, but it will not ship them from China to the US anymore. While many of Anbernic’s products are available in the US, some of them, such as the Anbernic RG CubeXX or the RG 406H, are only available if imported from China, and are currently unavailable for Americans. Anbernic has also stated that it’s currently trying to find a “suitable solution” for customers who were affected by fees before imports were halted.
US Customers Will Only Be Able to Purchase Anbernic Consoles Already in the Country
Anbernic is far from the only company in the gaming industry to be negatively affected by the tariffs. Last week, for example,Square Enix stopped pre-orders of merchandise in the USfor the same reason as Anbernic. The decision still does not affect games, only merchandise, but this could change in the future.
Nintendo was one of the companies that has suffered the most from the tariffs in the last few weeks, stopping pre-orders for the eagerly awaited Switch 2 in the US. Earlier this week,pre-orders for the Switch 2 in the United Stateswere finally resumed with the same prices as originally announced.
Unfortunately, it’s still impossible to tell if the United States may face a shortage of Nintendo Switch 2 consoles or if prices will change again. Nintendo is reportedlysending most of the Vietnam-made Switch 2 consoles to the USto avoid the high tariffs imposed on China, but only time will tell if this will be enough to satiate the demand for the new platform in the world’s largest economy.
