As much as we try to escape it, the Trump administration's tariffs are already affecting the videogame industry. Back in February, the Entertainment Software Association urged the administration to open dialogue regarding tariffs for fear of the industry getting affected. Now that they are in effect, we've already seen stock prices of Japanese developers drop and pre-order delays for the Nintendo Switch 2 in several countries.
Gaming might be getting more expensive thanks to tariffs.
The tabletop games industry, which was seeing a resurgence, is also at risk, with big names like Gloomhaven are worried for survival, with a 104% manufacturing cost increase due to the tariffs. It seems the tariffs have also affected Fortnite, kind of.
Fortnite recently released a free new loading screen wallpaper called The Big Dillbits Crash. It features the big baddie of the season, Fletcher Kane, standing in front of a crashing Dillbit graph. The story behind it is similar to a Bitcoin scam, and the crash has essentially destroyed his financial hold over the island.
It's quite a coincidence that the real life stock market also looks very similar, thanks to the tariffs. Of course, Fortnite probably had this planned way before the...
