If you
thought that Nintendo's fearsome team of lawyers was only good
for destroying emulators and suing fans for making free games, you were sorely
mistaken. This time, the "Big N" has decided to aim its legal cannons
at the ultimate final boss: the U.S. government. On Wednesday, the
company filed a formal lawsuit against the Treasury and Homeland Security
departments demanding a full refund (with interest, of course) for the chaotic
tariffs imposed by Donald Trump last year.
The
disaster that ruined the launch of the Switch 2
To
understand this corporate and political drama, we must remember the hell we
lived through at the beginning of 2025. Using emergency laws, the Trump
administration nailed massive tariffs on imports from China, Canada, and
Mexico. For the video game industry, this was a low blow that directly affected
the import of consoles and components.
It cost
Nintendo blood, sweat and tears. Pre-orders for the long-awaited Switch
2 were delayed for more than two weeks because the company literally
didn't know how much it was going to cost to bring the consoles. Although they
managed to launch the hardware in June 2025 by taking advantage of a temporary
gap in fees, gamers ended up paying the price with inflated prices on hardware
and physical games.
Fortunately,
on February 20, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the government a reality
check, declaring that the use of these emergency laws to impose broad tariffs
was completely illegal. With that victory in hand, Nintendo's demand is
clear: "Give us back our money for the damages caused to
importers."
Good
news for Latin America?
Although
this seems like a simple fight between gringo billionaires, it has a direct
impact on our region. The 25% tariffs hit manufacturing in Mexico,
where much of the physical game discs are manufactured, hitting shipments to
Brazil, Colombia, Chile and the rest of Latin America more expensive.
To avoid
this type of chaos in the future, Nintendo has already begun to move much of
its production out of high-tariff risk areas, redirecting investments to
Southeast Asia and Latin America itself. Experts say that if companies like
Nintendo get their money back (the government has about 45 days to pay back
more than $166 billion overall), they could invest in new local factories,
which would shorten supply chains and, in theory, lower costs for us.
However, fear remains latent in the face of rumors that Trump will try to impose a new flat rate of 10% worldwide. For now, do you think Nintendo will manage to get every penny out of the US government or will this legal lawsuit end up delaying the distribution of the next Switch 2 games?
