Following a presidential order last week, the purchase of video game consoles in Turkey has now become quite an expensive ordeal for the masses.

According to a roughly translated report from HaberTurk, the Turkish government has imposed additional customs duty on the import of several products that include a 50-percent customs tax on video game consoles. The new tax rate will remain valid until September 30, 2020, after which the Turkish government will bring down the tax rate to 20 percent from October 1, 2020, onwards.

Local retailers have already raised prices and the timing could not be worse. COVID-19 has forced people worldwide to observe self-isolation by quarantining themselves at homes. The lockdown imposed by Turkey in March actually saw sales of video game consoles soar for the country. With the new customs tax rate, however, sales are now likely to dwindle as people search for other — cheaper in comparison — ways to keep themselves occupied.

The more worrying part about the new tax rate, though, has to do with the arrival of next-generation consoles. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are slated to launch during the holiday season at the end of the year, somewhere around November at the earliest. They will be reportedly pricey and should the Turkish government decide to not cut down the newly imposed customs duty, being an early next-generation adopter will be a serious challenge for Turkish citizens.

The next-generation consoles are expected to be around the $450 to $500 threshold. A recession brought upon by the pandemic is further expected to eat away at sales for the launch year as most players will refrain from jumping onto the next-generation bandwagon and instead choose to stick with their PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles. One reason being that most developers will be utilizing backwards compatibility to release cross-generation games. Keeping in mind the recession factor, a need to to upgrade will just not be there.