Whenever a violent crime makes headlines, we are treated to a familiar, tiresome refrain: 'It’s the video games.' It is a narrative South Korean gamers know all too well, but this time, the stage is set in the United States. When asked to identify the root cause of gun violence, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, offered this: 'Psychiatric drug abuse, video games, and social media.' He offered this without a shred of supporting research or a concrete plan, of course. While the U.S. has never been a utopia for gaming, and the scapegoating of games for gun violence is a well-worn trope, it hits differently when it comes directly from a Cabinet member's mouth.

Naturally, the backlash was fierce, but there is little chance of a retraction. After all, President Donald Trump has been since his first term, consistently maintaining a negative stance towards gaming. Since the turn of the year, the collateral damage has been mounting. Tariff bombs have driven hardware prices skyward, and cuts to humanities subsidies are dismantling various projects, including critical game preservation efforts. Given the contents of Project 2025—which the second Trump administration is currently fleshing out—the likelihood of indirect, sweeping regulations on culture and arts, driven by religious conservatism, is on the rise.

Around the same time, credit card companies and payment processors brandished the sword of censorship under the guise of 'mitigating their own risks.' Platforms like Steam and itch.io have faced immense pressure, leading to a wave of adult game delistings. Despite pushback from creators against this 'private censorship' carried out by unaccountable corporations, the outcome remains unchanged. Classic game distributor 'ZOOM Platform' stated, 'We were told that even titles like the GTA series, Duke Nukem, and Saints Row are at risk of being purged.' The Fair Access to Banking Services Act amendment is also widely expected to leave the gaming industry out in the cold, leaving developers in a state of profound uncertainty.

From a Health Secretary leading anti-vaccine sentiments blaming games without evidence, to a President ignoring mountains of research to label games a cause of violence, to payment processors enforcing arbitrary, opaque censorship on adult content regardless of target audience—given the U.S.'s global influence, this trifecta is nothing short of a catastrophe for the gaming industry. With no signs of improvement or a shift in trajectory, it is no exaggeration to say the industry is facing a total disaster.