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PlayStation (Games) Businesses China Sony United States Games

Sony Warns PlayStation Consoles Might Get More Expensive if the Trade War Continues (cnet.com) 182

Posted by msmash from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.
If the US-China trade war continues to escalate, consumers could soon find themselves paying more for PlayStations. From a report: As with other electronics giants, Sony manufacturers most of its consoles in China, with the company warning that if a new round of higher tariffs goes into effect the price for its game console may go up. "We believe, and therefore have told the U.S. government, that higher tariffs would ultimately damage the U.S. economy," said Hiroki Totoki, Sony's chief financial officer, according to The Wall Street Journal. Totoki added that the company hasn't decided yet how it would handle additional tariffs but said that it may have consumers share some of the cost. In May President Trump raised US import tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods from 10% to 25%, threatening to place additional tariffs on another $300 billion of Chinese exports which would include video games. The US and China resumed trade talks Tuesday.
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Sony Warns PlayStation Consoles Might Get More Expensive if the Trade War Continues More

Sony Warns PlayStation Consoles Might Get More Expensive if the Trade War Continues

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  • Just Sony, really? (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    All three of the console manufactures made a joint statement about this a month prior.

    https://www.polygon.com/2019/6/26/18760087/trump-china-tariffs-nintendo-microsoft-sony.

    • Re:Just Sony, really? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Joce640k ( 829181 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @10:16AM (#59011940) Homepage

      All three of the console manufactures made a joint statement about this a month prior.

      https://www.polygon.com/2019/6/26/18760087/trump-china-tariffs-nintendo-microsoft-sony.

      a) The price of consoles is nothing compared to the price of the games they run.

      b) What's an extra $50? Aren't all Americans rich and middle class now thanks to Trump's booming economy?

  • Oh Gawd (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @10:04AM (#59011876)

    Oh Gawd, the toys might become more expensive. Doing nothing, which is what the "orange bad" camp and the Chinese trolls want you to do, has already lead to billions of dollars of theft, the Chinese destroying our steel industry and western world's solar panel production through dumping, along with many, many other significant but smaller industries that are all vital to continuing the nation and are trivially easy for China to shut off our access to.

    Stop playing the fool, stop swallowing all propaganda just because it's anti-Trump. Grow up and think a little.

    • Reagan on Trump (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Comboman ( 895500 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @10:26AM (#59011998)

      In recent years, the trade deficit led some misguided politicians to call for protectionism, warning that otherwise we would lose jobs. But they were wrong again. In fact, the United States not only didn’t lose jobs, we created more jobs than all the countries of Western Europe, Canada, and Japan combined. The record is clear that when America’s total trade has increased, American jobs have also increased. And when our total trade has declined, so have the number of jobs.

      Part of the difficulty in accepting the good news about trade is in our words. We too often talk about trade while using the vocabulary of war. In war, for one side to win, the other must lose. But commerce is not warfare. Trade is an economic alliance that benefits both countries. There are no losers, only winners. And trade helps strengthen the free world.

      Yet today protectionism is being used by some American politicians as a cheap form of nationalism, a fig leaf for those unwilling to maintain America’s military strength and who lack the resolve to stand up to real enemies — countries that would use violence against us or our allies. Our peaceful trading partners are not our enemies; they are our allies. We should beware of the demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war against our friends — weakening our economy, our national security, and the entire free world — all while cynically waving the American flag. The expansion of the international economy is not a foreign invasion; it is an American triumph, one we worked hard to achieve, and something central to our vision of a peaceful and prosperous world of freedom.

      - Ronald Reagan, November 26, 1988 (Don't believe me? Watch the video [youtu.be])

      • In recent years, the trade deficit led some misguided politicians to call for protectionism, warning that otherwise we would lose jobs. But they were wrong again. In fact, the United States not only didn’t lose jobs, we created more jobs than all the countries of Western Europe, Canada, and Japan combined. The record is clear that when America’s total trade has increased, American jobs have also increased. And when our total trade has declined, so have the number of jobs.

        Part of the difficulty in accepting the good news about trade is in our words. We too often talk about trade while using the vocabulary of war. In war, for one side to win, the other must lose. But commerce is not warfare. Trade is an economic alliance that benefits both countries. There are no losers, only winners. And trade helps strengthen the free world.

        Yet today protectionism is being used by some American politicians as a cheap form of nationalism, a fig leaf for those unwilling to maintain America’s military strength and who lack the resolve to stand up to real enemies — countries that would use violence against us or our allies. Our peaceful trading partners are not our enemies; they are our allies. We should beware of the demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war against our friends — weakening our economy, our national security, and the entire free world — all while cynically waving the American flag. The expansion of the international economy is not a foreign invasion; it is an American triumph, one we worked hard to achieve, and something central to our vision of a peaceful and prosperous world of freedom.

        - Ronald Reagan, November 26, 1988 (Don't believe me? Watch the video [youtu.be])

        Amen

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Type44Q ( 1233630 )

        ...we created more jobs than all the countries of Western Europe, Canada, and Japan combined.

        Repeat after me: those DOGSHIT, DISPOSABLE JOBS DON'T COUNT... and there are more of them because people now need MORE THAN ONE SHITTY JOB JUST TO AVOID HOMELESSNESS.Now run along and fuck off.

      • We're replacing high paying Union manufacturing with things like Uber drivers and fast food workers. The high tech jobs we were promised when NAFTA passed either never materialized, require advanced skills only a fraction are capable of or are going to H-1Bs (the Trump administration with the help of Congress just moved to change rules remove per country caps on H1-Bs, with the expectation of an additional 600,000 tech workers predominately from India).

        Reagan was indeed in favor of free trade, for the s

      • 1) A speech given in a different time and economic climate means we must never stand up for ourselves if we see unfair trading practices?
        and
        2) I'm pretty sure Mr. Reagan didn't and wouldn't count China as an ally.

        Further evidence this would not apply today, is that Reagan ,like Trump, was completely pro -patriot, and understood unlike today's mainstream and Left that nationalism and patriotism are minimally related but actually two different things, not conflating the two for political expediency.

    • Oh Gawd, the toys might become more expensive. Doing nothing, which is what the "orange bad" camp and the Chinese trolls want you to do, has already lead to billions of dollars of theft, the Chinese destroying our steel industry and western world's solar panel production through dumping, along with many, many other significant but smaller industries that are all vital to continuing the nation and are trivially easy for China to shut off our access to.

      Stop playing the fool, stop swallowing all propaganda just because it's anti-Trump. Grow up and think a little.

      psssst Pro-tip : Orange is bad (open your fucking eyes)

    • The Chinese did not destroy your steel industry, you sold it to them for less than 5 cents on the dollar from bankruptcy trustees to chase the enormous profit in financial products. Did you think that all that cut-rate steel production capacity would just sit idle?

  • Oh no (Score:4, Insightful)

    by melted ( 227442 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @10:07AM (#59011882) Homepage

    How are we going to survive if Playstation costs 20 bucks more. Surely the US economy will collapse if millions of teenagers go outside a bit more often.

    • Re:Oh no (Score:4, Insightful)

      by slack_justyb ( 862874 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @10:17AM (#59011954)

      Surely the US economy will collapse if millions of teenagers go outside a bit more often

      Wow, way to neckbeard there. No one is saying the economy will collapse, especially not Sony or Slashdot. The only person saying that is you. People get upset over sudden price increases and a common complaint I hear on this site is "How dare they just increase the price for increasing the price's sake. Those greedy, MFer!!". So a company announces to expect a price increase and gives the rationale for why that is, and suddenly you're feeling like hyperbole?

      Clearly it's a no win situation with your type.

      • While they didn't specifically say collapse, they did imply something similar when they said it will damage the US economy...

        "We believe, and therefore have told the U.S. government, that higher tariffs would ultimately damage the U.S. economy,"

    • If millions of teenagers go outside, the US economy might not collapse but the balcony might...

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Maybe, if it was just the Playstation. It's not just the Playstation though, it's a huge range of goods in a huge range of categories. And at the same time, retaliatory tariffs are slowing US exports, i.e. making US companies that do manufacture there less profitable.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by melted ( 227442 )

        And that's why we have the lowest unemployment in decades, right?

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          High unemployment built on low wages and part time work. If all the cheap stuff goes away and the cost of living rises, that will quickly become untenable.

  • Comment removed (Score:3)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @10:19AM (#59011968)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by amxcoder ( 1466081 )
      The purpose of the tariffs is to cause China to reduce or nix the tarrifs on our stuff, making our exports more financially competitive. What products we have left at this point, I don't know, but that is a different point. If they lower their tariffs, then ours can be lowered back down to, and then we have the ability to be more competitive with our products in their markets.

      Short summary, is a little hurt for us in the short term to attempt to get less hurt in the long run. I know, "short term pain

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by dmatos ( 232892 )

        Hold up, I think you've got this backwards. Or, at least, you're not going all the way to the proximate cause for the tariffs.

        The first tariffs were put in place by Trump, on Chinese goods, in an attempt to "correct the trade imbalance that the US has with China." In other words, China ships more shit to the US than the US does to China. The Chinese then imposed retaliatory tariffs on US goods. The US then imposed retaliatory tariffs on more Chinese goods. The Chinese then imposed more retaliatory tari

      • Short summary, is a little hurt for us in the short term to attempt to get less hurt in the long run.

        That works really well when you have a good bargaining position. Right now it would seem the USA's bargaining position is as good as the UK's for leaving the EU. This worked in Blazing Saddles https://youtu.be/6pADDn0qm3M?t... [youtu.be] but I wouldn't bank my economy on it working in real life.

    • The tariffs are dumb and ultimately damage the US more than anyone else.

      You are probably right - if the tariffs were allowed to continue forever.

      But the tariffs are just a tool to get China to lower the tariffs THEY have in place against the sale of foreign goods there.

      The tariffs hurt both countries, but the U.S. has a pretty good economy going and can take the relatively small hit here from the tariffs we have imposed.

      Meanwhile companies are already moving some manufacturing out of China, and if China sho

  • Oh noes! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MBGMorden ( 803437 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @10:32AM (#59012042)

    The evil orange man is threatening to shut off our unsustainable flow of dirt cheap doodads from China!!!!!!

    International trade should be about getting things that other places are particularly good at. Cigars from Cuba. Optics from Japan. Watches from Switzerland. Basically things that people are willing to pay a premium for. If your international trade is just because 'they make stuff cheaper there" as is the case with China, then all you're doing is siphoning money out of your own economy to be deposited elsewhere.

    Yes, tariffs will make things a little more expensive in the short term, however unless the trade deficit is brought back into balance the economy is heading towards an eventual collapse.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Basically things that people are willing to pay a premium for.

      Fine if you can afford to pay a premium, otherwise you have to drive a shitty car because you can't afford a decent one. Screw competition, why would they bother making a better automobile when tariffs shield them from competition at the affordable end of the market?

      Competition is good, trade is good. Where it gets screwed up is when the playing field is not level. Things like a big imbalance in the cost of labour or environmental standards.

    • we still get the stuff and we pay less for it, right? America's been cutting wages and social programs non stop for 40 years. There's basically two reasons you haven't noticed. First, the two major bubbles (.com and housing), second, cheap Chinese goods made with borderline slave labor and without regard to pollution (the "can't breath" kind as opposed to the "Save the Whales" kind).

      In order to make way for lower wages and lower taxes we've set up a very, very precarious system. Think Jenga with most of
      • right now Saudi Arabia Loves the current administration. They looked the other way while they murdered a US permanent Resident (basically a Citizen waiting for the paper work to clear). We're selling them gobs of sophisticated weapons they're using to turn Yemen into a vassal state and we're gearing up for a regime change war with their enemy Iran and we seem to be sharing sensitive nuclear tech [go.com] with them. That last one is so batshit crazy I don't even know what to think. I know it's real because I've read

    • International trade should be about getting things that other places are particularly good at.

      Particularly good at making includes being able to make it at a lower cost. Yes, that can include paying a premium for something that we do not have the knowledge or infrastructure to build as well, but it also includes paying less because they can produce it cheaper than we can even when including shipping costs.

      If your international trade is just because 'they make stuff cheaper there" as is the case with China, then all you're doing is siphoning money out of your own economy to be deposited elsewhere.

      That's not all you're doing. You're using your resources more efficiently to grow your own economy. If you spend more by buying things made locally, that's less money you have available for buying

    • however unless the trade deficit is brought back into balance the economy is heading towards an eventual collapse.

      Please cite an economic source for this assertion. I mean the textbook economics states that trade is a net increase to both parties trading and a trade imbalance is not a bad thing at all.

      You want to produce cheap shit yourself, go your hardest. Otherwise you may just want to import it from countries which are good at it.

  • then prices might increase. Thanks for the news update.

    I await tomorrow's news story telling us if costs don't go up, then prices might not increase.

    • Nah, prices are gonna increase anyway

    • If it wasn't a console nearing the end of its lifecycle. The price is due to go down again anyway. If prices go up, it will only be because they're using the tariff as a thinly veiled money grab. A 19 cent tax increase on fuel in Illinois led to a 40+ cent increase on prices at the pump. As long as it looks legit, the money rolls in.

  • Until beer prices go up, few will care.

  • That game was stupid. Buy low, sell high. Don't get killed.
  • People need to realize that tariffs and opposition to outsourcing are two sides of the same coin. You cannot have one without the other. If you are against companies shifting their manufacturing to China, then you are for tariffs on goods manufactured in China. If you are against tariffs on Chinese goods, then you are for companies shifting their manufacturing to China to lower costs.

    You can't be against outsourcing manufacturing jobs to China, and simultaneously against tariffs just because Trump is

  • It gets more expensive to produce them. Since when does manufacturing cost influence price? The price is the amount of money you ask where you expect to see the optimal profit.

    Do you honestly think the production cost of an iPhone have anythign to do with its price tag?

  • So stay the hell away from it.

  • Considering 1-2 years ago his response to a shooting was to suggest video games as the cause of shootings.

  • NO PROBLEM (Score:3)

    by AnalogDiehard ( 199128 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @02:01PM (#59013406)
    Make them in the US, no tariffs. Problem Solved.

    Am I the only one who is tired of the standard defeatist disposition every time they are facing tariffs? Did it ever occur to them that they have been slapping tariffs on US imports for years, and now they have the audacity to complain when it happens to them?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Chromal ( 56550 )
      Why would China complain? Import tariffs aren't a taxation on China, they're a taxation on US consumers. China is rolling in laughter as Trump unloads both barrels of his psychotic shotgun on average US citizens.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Right, just set up some new mines for the raw materials, fabs for all the chips, factories for the other components, logistics to move it all around, and do it all in triplicate so you have second sources and some competition to keep prices down. Then build a robot factory to assemble the Playstations.

      Oh, but the volume will be lower... Hmm, and now retaliatory tariffs on the US mean that US exports are more expensive too. Well, I guess the price was going up anyway, since they had to invest a few hundred b

    • Make them in the US, no tariffs. Problem Solved.

      Am I the only one who is tired of the standard defeatist disposition every time they are facing tariffs? Did it ever occur to them that they have been slapping tariffs on US imports for years, and now they have the audacity to complain when it happens to them?

      While we're at it, I want a pony, no wait, a unicorn, that flies!

      Did it ever occur to you that it's not a defeatist attitude to simply state reality? Why, we could make EVERYTHING in the United States! First let's just get those rare earth mines going... Oh... Wait... We have one, of those, but not enough to satisfy demand. We could open another one! Oh... wait... It costs at least half a billion dollars to do this... I'm sure you see where this is going. To think we can survive by making anything we

  • You need to BUY one NOW!

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