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In a time where tariff price hikes are invading seemingly every element of life, diving into a video game could offer a welcome reprieve, both spiritually and fiscally. Digital video games do not require materials, shipping, or manufacturing costs, allowing them to cross borders without incurring extra fees. And the video game industry has been shifting to digital long before Trump’s so-called Liberation Day. In terms of software, PC gaming is now overwhelmingly digital, and physical versions are largely obsolete, says Manu Rosier, market intelligence director at Newzoo. We do not expect tariffs to significantly impact the price of video game software. However, video-game-industry analysts say that although the prices of digital software likely will not increase, stress about the tariffs may still cause a shift in U.S. consumer spending on games. When thinking about the ways that spending on games may change in the coming months, Mat Piscatella, executive games director at Circana, says that its important to consider the ways that other parts of life will be impacted by the tariffs. One of the big reasons for what we saw happen with the November elections was around the cost of everyday-spending categories like groceries and housing, he says. That certainly won’t be alleviated in the current tariff layout, and so that could further push video game consumers toward the big free-to-play or more accessible games. Because of this, Piscatella tentatively projects that the video game industry may see a drop in demand for premium video games. However, games with long and deep connections to their player basessuch as Fortnite, Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto, Roblox, and Call of Dutycould gain more ground. In Newzoo’s 2025 PC and Console Gaming Report, analysts found that in 2024, 58% of all PC gaming revenue came from microtransactions, such as players purchasing loot boxes and other in-game goods. This was only a 1.4% growth increase from 2023, but tariff worries could prompt a steeper incline. Spending $5 or $20 on a game you already love is easier than dropping $80 on a new title, says Piscatella. These titles already have social and monetary hooks that keep players engaged. This continued engagement is crucial in the video game industry, which hit peak audience growth during the worst years of the COVID-19 pandemic. From the late ’70s onward, every year we would have more people playing and more people playing for more hours, says Piscatella. Then, in 2020 and 2021, we had this huge wave of people come in. So we hit a ceiling on both the number of players and hours of engagement, in the U.S. in particular. Ever since then, the goals of the industry have shifted from growing the audience to maintaining and increasing the spending from the existing audience. One part of the gaming industry that will have a more difficult time with retention is undoubtedly physical games and gaming hardware in general. This is bad news for a company like Nintendo which was set to begin preorders in the U.S. for its Switch 2 but had to push the date back to April 24 due to tariff announcements. A chief concern revolves around the Switch 2. Nintendo systems are the most physical forward of all the in-market devices. They’ve made a big point about delivering physical software so games could be easily shared among family members, says Piscatella. How many units of Switch hardware can you even allocate to the U.S., given all the uncertainties, right? How much is the potential market for physical cartridges really going to be, at least in the short term? Rosier agrees. Tariffs could affect packaged games, which are already set to be more expensive than their digital versions,” he says. “This might encourage more players to shift to digital, and Nintendo may adjust physical production accordingly. However, it’s important to note that economic factors are shifting so rapidly that it is difficult to make any solid predictions of the future to come. Right now the uncertainties are off the charts, says Piscatella. People will still love video games and they’ll still play them, but how they play them and how they spend on them, that might certainly change.
Category:
E-Commerce
Since President Trump announced a sweeping slate of tariffs earlier this month, a highly uncertain market has led to supply-chain disruptions for everything from iPhones to electric bikes and Volvo cars. Now, the tariffs are coming for something else: your packages. The German-based shipping company DHL announced yesterday that it plans to suspend shipments of any packages over $800 to customers in the United States, starting today. According to a press release from the company, the move comes as a result of recent U.S Customs regulatory updates, which have caused DHL to face multi-day transit delays to the U.S from any origin for shipments with a declared customs value exceeding USD 800. The customs updates in question were instated on April 9 by the Trump administration to enforce its strict new tariffs. The updates require a more time-consuming formal customs process for any package entering the U.S. thats valued at $800 or morea major change from the previous restrictions, which only required formal entry processing for packages over $2,500. This change has caused a surge in formal customs clearances, which we are handling around the clock, DHL said in the release. What does this mean for US customers? For American DHL customers, the companys update means that it wont be possible to receive any package through DHL valued at more than $800. However, the company noted that business-to-business deliveries valued over $800 will not be affected by the new procedure. DHL also clarified that this measure is temporary, and that it will share updates as the situation evolves. DHLs new restrictions come just days after Hong Kongs postal service announced that it would cease handling any package shipments to the U.S., citing the Trump administrations abusive new tariffs and regulations. These new shipping limitations could be a harbinger of whats to come. As international shipping becomes more complicated and importers are faced with rising fees, many experts agree that shipping costs for consumers are likely to spikeor, in the case of DHLs new regulations, some options may disappear altogether.
Category:
E-Commerce
Underneath the slopes of the San Jacinto Mountains of Palm Desert, California, stands a house that looks right out of the pages of a magazine. With its distinctive rolling roof and mid-century modern design, the historic Miles C. Bates Wave House holds a coveted spot on the National Register of Historic Places. And now, thanks to a collaboration between modern furniture-and-design company Design Within Reach (DWR) and vacation rental company, Boutique, the Wave House is beautifully furnished and open to the public for rentals. [Photo: Courtesy Design Within Reach] DWR chose to outfit the house with pieces from its Paul Smith Collection, a collaboration with the British luxury fashion designer releasing the same day as the house booking. True to Smiths design philosophy of classic with a twist, the collection reimagines a selection of iconic Knoll, Herman Miller, and DWR furniture with colorful new textiles. From the Eames Molded Plastic Side Chair refreshed with a seat cushion fashioned in lime green polka dots to Eero Saarinens Womb Chair cheerfully covered in vertical stripes, the collection aims to strike a balance between modernity and tradition. [Photo: Courtesy Design Within Reach] The collaboration provides an opportunity for DWR to explore new ways to introduce their collections to audiences. Debbie Propst, president of global retail at DWRs parent company MillerKnoll, notes that this is an exciting opportunity to allow people to live with DWR pieces in real life and interact with them outside of a store. [Photo: courtesy Design Within Reach] This experiential marketing philosophy isn’t new. The shoppable hotel room phenomena has been rising in popularity as a way to entice guests to bring a piece of their vacation back home with them. Guests at the Wave House can purchase everything from side chairs to the bed frame. All of the pieces in the collection are available through DWR’s website and at its new nearby Palm Springs location, opened just this February. [Photo: Courtesy Design Within Reach] When planning the furnishings for the house, Omar Nobil, senior vice president and creative director at DWR, says that the companys goal was to embody the spirit of the property and create a transportive experience for guests. [Photo: Courtesy Design Within Reach] The striking architecture is a perfect home to the collection which honors form and function through bold applications of pattern, color, and scale, says Nobil. Great interior design has the power to move and inspire people when every detail, large or small, has been considered with the purpose of creating a particular, transportive experience.
Category:
E-Commerce
Remember when TikTok went nuts for Dubai chocolate? Well, that continued fervor is now causing an international shortage of pistachios. The trend took off in 2023 when food reviewer Maria Vehera posted a video unwrapping and eating the high-end chocolate bar (called “Cant Get Knafeh of It” in a nod to the traditional Arab dessert). The bar was originally launched in 2021 by boutique Emirati chocolatier Fix. Vehera’s video has since racked up more than 124 million views and is widely credited with sparking the Dubai chocolate craze. Instantly recognizable by its vibrant green filling, TikTokers flooded the platform with enthusiastic taste tests of the bar, which is sold exclusively in the UAE. Many also began rating dupes and attempting homemade recreations. The traditional recipe features milk chocolate, the shredded pastry known as kataifi, and a pistachio cream filling. If the bar wasnt already hard enough to get your hands on, the global shortage of its key ingredientpistachio kernelshas made it that much more precious. In just one year, prices have soared from $7.65 to $10.30 per pound, Giles Hacking from nut trader CG Hacking told the Financial Times. The pistachio world is basically tapped out at the moment, he said. Primarily grown in the U.S. and Iran, pistachios were already in short supply due to a poor American harvest last year. This year, Iranian producers have exported 40% more nuts to the UAE in the six months leading to March than they did in the entire 12 months before. Thats a major shift from 2023, when global supply exceeded demand and prices dipped, according to Behrooz Agah, a founding member of the Iran Pistachio Association. Major chocolate makers like Läderach and Lindt have since joined the trend with their own pistachio-infused products. Meanwhile, cookie chain Crumbl reportedly has Dubai Chocolate Brownie and Dubai Chocolate Cheesecake flavors in development. And with demand still booming, scammers have even set up fake websites claiming to sell the coveted chocolate. In response, some stores are now reportedly rationing the number of bars per customer. Id like to see them try to stand between me and my pistachio chocolate.
Category:
E-Commerce
Weeks ahead of his death, Pope Francis dedicated this months prayer intention to new technologies and the hope that it can serve every person, especially the weakest. How I would like for us to look less at screens and look each other in the eyes more, Pope Francis said in a prerecorded video released April 1. Somethings wrong if we spend more time on our cellphones than with people. The screen makes us forget that there are real people behind it who breathe, laugh, and cry. Pope Francis died at 88 Monday morning, the Vatican announced in a statement on X, just after his appearance in St. Peters Square on Easter Sunday. Pope Francis, in his 12-year papacy, often stood up for the marginalized, including migrants. And the April 1 tech-focused prayer intention was no different. “It’s true, technology is the fruit of the intelligence God gave us,” he continued. “But we need to use it well. It can’t benefit only a few while excluding others. So, what should we do? We should use technology to unite, not to divide. To help the poor. To improve the lives of the sick and persons with different abilities.” The pope has voiced his concerns over technology before. Last year, he warned that artificial intelligence could lock the world order in a “technocratic paradigm.” In 2023, he spoke to participants at a workshop about how tech should be considered with its moral implications. “Use technology to care for our common home,” Pope Francis said during his April 1 intention. “To connect as brothers and sisters. It’s when we look at each other in the eyes that we discover what really matters: that we are brothers, sisters, children of the same Father. Let us pray that the use of new technologies will not replace human relationships, will respect the dignity of the person, and will help us face the crises of our times.”
Category:
E-Commerce
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