Sony Interactive Entertainment is developing a strategy to mitigate potential import tariffs on PlayStation hardware.
During its third-quarter earnings announcement for fiscal year 2024, Sony Interactive Entertainment shared its plans to mitigate the impact of the US government’s new import tariffs on its earnings, including those coming from PlayStation hardware. The console maker has been working to duplicate its supply chain and increase their flexibility by engaging in practices like stockpiling a certain level of strategic inventory in the country.
As a result of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s countermeasures, it expects the impact of US import tariffs on its financial performance to be minor. The company is prepared to respond flexibly and promptly to a change in circumstances and implement additional measures at the appropriate time in order to minimize the impact on its earnings.
Meanwhile, PC GPU vendors recently updated prices for their products, with the RTX 5090 lineup seeing an increase by up to 400 US Dollars. These changes came after US president Donald Trump signed executive orders to impose tariffs on all imports on Canada, Mexico, and China on February 1, 2025, the largest tax hike in the country since 1993. As expected, the price hike isn’t linear to the 10% tariff imposed on imports from China, as there are additional processing costs associated with the new trade policy.
Previously, it was revealed by Mat Piscatella, Executive Director and Video Game Industry Analyst at Circana (NPD), that lifetime sales of the PS5 have outpaced those of the PS4 by 7%, while Xbox Series consoles have fallen 18% behind Xbox One in the US. According to him, Sony’s current-gen console now ranks third in launch aligned hardware dollar sales in U.S. history, trailing only Switch and Xbox 360. The platform currently ranks 11th in lifetime unit sales. For the year 2024, Xbox Series ranked second in hardware spending, while Switch placed second in unit sales. Meanwhile, PS5 led 2024 across both measures. Furthermore, all digital edition console sales comprised of 45% of all PlayStation 5 units sold during the year and 44% of Xbox Series.
