Retro game industry in panic as Trump tariffs threaten hobby

One gaming handheld maker is pausing shipments to the United States due to U.S. President Trump’s 145% tariffs on products imported from China. Anbernic, which makes the popular Anbernic RG35XX Plus, announced it’s suspending all orders of its handhelds sent from China to the U.S. The company joins Retroid Pocket in the tariff chaos; that […]

Apr 22, 2025 - 15:21

Retro game industry in panic as Trump tariffs threaten hobby

One gaming handheld maker is pausing shipments to the United States due to U.S. President Trump’s 145% tariffs on products imported from China. Anbernic, which makes the popular Anbernic RG35XX Plus, announced it’s suspending all orders of its handhelds sent from China to the U.S. The company joins Retroid Pocket in the tariff chaos; that company, which also ships handhelds from China, is rushing to ship out its new device before the U.S. government closes the de minimis exemption, which allowed smaller shipments, under $800, from facing tariffs.

To put it simply: If a company is shipping a bunch of handhelds to the U.S., and any one shipment is valued over $800, that shipment would face normal tariffs. If that company is shipping a single handheld console to a customer in the U.S., the levies were originally 30% of the item’s value, or a flat rate of $25 — a number that will increase to $50 on June 1. Small packages will have those tariffs applied instead of the 145% increase. A $25 or $50 increase might not seem like a ton, but the draw of these consoles is that they allow players to access lots of games, on a system that runs well, for pretty cheap. The $25 or $50 rates also turned out to be short-lived; Trump later increased the rate twice, ending up at 120% or $100, beginning May 2. On June 1, that goes up to $200 per item. A console that previously cost $100 could now be $200 or more under these rates.

Polygon has reached out to Retroid and Anbernic for comment, but has not heard back before publication. A spokesperson for Ayaneo, another retro handheld maker, said it’s “actively” working on its plan with regard to the tariffs.

Retro gaming enthusiasts are panic-ordering devices like the Retroid Pocket Flip 2, trying to get their order in before tariffs hit. Eric, a retro gaming enthusiast from Pennsylvania, told Polygon that he “immediately” ordered the device when it went on sale, due to the tariffs and fear he wouldn’t be able to get it later. With Retroid rushing to get out its orders to U.S. customers, Eric’s Flip 2 is navigating the Chinese mail system.

“Ultimately, we need people to create new ‘retro’ products to keep a vibrant community”

“The whole premise of the sub-$150 market, and much more so the sub-$80 market, is that you’re getting an outdated phone [system on a chip] in a form factor that is going to have some random flaws, but because it’s cheap and you’re only looking to play old SNES or Playstation games, it’s not a big deal,” Zu and Stubbs, who write for retro handheld enthusiast site RetroHandhelds, told Polygon via email. “It’s even part of the fun to see new form factors, find out what new chips can do, and discover what sort of custom firmware people will come up with.”

While some consumer electronics are exempt from tariffs (supposedly temporarily, per a statement from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick), like smartphones and computers, video game consoles aren’t. They’re classified by the U.S. International Trade Commission as toys, not technology. The chaos of it all is causing widespread panic in the retro gaming community — not just retro handheld makers, but retro hardware repair businesses and others, too.

“Anyone who creates or manufactures any hardware has been impacted,” Steve Nutter, who repairs and restores vintage CRT monitors and televisions, told Polygon. “This leads to concern within the community that items will not just cost more, but will disappear all together. Either risk a lot by trying to maintain production and pass on the costs, or producers will leave the market and abandon manufacturing, temporarily or possibly permanently.”

Nutter runs his business, Retro Tech, through Patreon. Subscribers get access to a community and vintage gaming expertise; they can also hire him for repair and maintenance on CRTs. He doesn’t sell anything, but he relies on “tools, materials, and replacement parts that are manufactured all over the world to repair and restore these machines,” he said. The companies that make those parts are forced to raise prices to offset tariffs. Nutter said he’s looking to U.S. manufacturing and bulk orders to offset costs. The problem is that some materials or parts simply aren’t made in the U.S. There’s no other option.

Another handheld device that’s at risk due to Trump’s tariffs is Arduboy, the credit card-sized, open source system. Beloved by its community, Arduboy is a device that some people might be willing to shell out double the price for, but creator Kevin Bates isn’t interested in that. “Nobody wants to pay $200 for an Arduboy,” Bates told Polygon. “And even if they do, I don’t really want to sell it. The magic of Arduboy is that it is accessible and price is a huge factor of that. People can still make it themselves, and play the games online using the emulator. Because of the open source nature of Arduboy, the platform itself can never really be killed.”

Bates said he was looking to divest from the business anyway, either by selling it or having investors take over, but the tariffs are making his “final chapter as an entrepreneur more difficult.” He’s revisiting U.S. manufacturing for an upgraded Arduboy he’d like to make, but there are challenges to that, too. U.S. manufacturers will likely rely on Chinese parts to make, which increases prices to manufacture in the U.S. even more.

“Zooming out a bit — there’s a familiar dystopian pattern,” Bates said. “Technology starts cheap and accessible. We adopt it, rely on it, and once it becomes essential, access gets restricted or priced up. It’s not just market disruption, it’s a shift in power and that’s what I believe these tariffs are designed to feel like.”

Some businesses remain in a “wait-and-see” holding pattern — things have changed so rapidly and frequently that no one knows how long these major tariffs will stick. But the turmoil created by the situation has already had a bleak impact on the industry.

“My concerns are about morale and sentiment,” Nutter said. “These abrupt changes cause uncertainty. I am concerned that many of my colleagues in the retro community will have to put their passions and creations on hold due to trade markets basically closing. These kinds of roadblocks really can be detrimental to small and medium size businesses as well as the creation of niche products. Ultimately, we need people to create new ‘retro’ products to keep a vibrant community.”