The latest tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump may stop game publishers from launching physical games because of increased manufacturing costs.

After weeks of threats, Trump now imposes a 25% tariff on goods imported from Mexico and Canada.In addition, Trump announced that a 10% tariff will be imposed on goods from China on the basis of the previously announced 10%.

Analysis said tariffs on Mexico and China could have a significant impact on the gaming industry, as both regions play a vital role in physical games and the physical production of the console itself.

Circana analyst Mat Piscatella posted on Bluesky that the increased cost of importing physical goods from Mexico (the vast majority of North American physical games are produced in Mexico) could lead publishers to further move away from physical games.

Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad pointed out that 20% of Chinese tariffs will affect the hosts and 25% of Mexican tariffs will affect physical game production.In response, Piscatella pointed out: "Although the affected few are after all, I wouldn't be too surprised if the physical games affected by tariffs were no longer produced and the publishers turned to full digitalization. It was a mess."

While most large games still have physical editions, many games (especially low-budget or standalone games) are only released in digital form.Earlier this year, Xbox’s first-party game “Off” was released as a digital-only product.Although some game stores have physical boxes, the boxes contain the code for the digital version of the game, not the CD.