Retro Handheld Maker Hit By Trump’s Trade War With China

A flood of well-made, affordable gaming handhelds out of China has made the last few years a great time to be a retro enthusiast. Many of them are made by Anbernic, which offers everything from $50 Game Boy-style throwbacks to higher-end modern Android-powered handhelds. Or at least it used to. Fans in the U.S. will soon see that stock dry up. The manufacturer has announced no new inventory is on the way as a result of President Donald Trump’s high-stakes trade war with China.

“Due to changes in US tariff policies, we will be suspending all orders shipping from China to the United States starting today,” Anbernic announced on its website over the weekend. “We strongly recommend prioritizing products shipped from our US warehouse, which are currently not affected by import duties and can be purchased with confidence.”

The devices impacted include Anbernic’s popular $70 RG 34XX which is modeled after the Game Boy Advance, as well as its newer $170 RG 406H which sports a bigger form factor and more powerful Tiger T820 processor. Most of Anbernic’s products are great for emulating games up through the PlayStation 1 era, with more expensive models supporting GameCube and PS2 libraries.

Many of these are still available to order from U.S. warehouses, but the options are much more limited. And as Trump’s trade war with China continues—tariffs are over 200 percent on some products—the U.S. inventory will no doubt run out, with newer units becoming prohibitively expensive to order from abroad. Models released later in the year, like the recently revealed RG 557, would be unavailable altogether. Or maybe a home-grown retro handheld manufacturing base will magically spring to life overnight in Wisconsin.

Retro emulation enthusiast communities aren’t the only ones being plunged into discord and copium. The tariff chaos also jumbled Nintendo’s Switch 2 pre-order plans in the U.S. (they’re now set to begin on April 24), and have led Sony to start hiking prices in various regions for PS5s and PS Plus. We’ll see how quickly other retro handheld makers out of China follow Anbernic’s lead. Retroid recently cancelled certain colors for its popular Retroid Pocket Classic from shipping to the U.S. Eventually, more expensive devices like the Steam Deck and ASUS Ally ROG will no doubt be impacted too.

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