It’s been going viral about the supposed end of Nintendo Switch physical media, especially with doomscroll worthy headlines like “It’s the End of An Era for Physical Games on Nintendo Switch 2” or “End of Nintendo Cartridge Production Might Accelerate Due to Manufacturer Closure,” to name a few.
The coverage itself is accurate, but the conclusions might be a little premature in the headlines alone when you factor in the nuance of the situation. So what’s probably going on, and who is Macronix?
The Report
Via David Gibson (Well regarded industry analyst) over Twitter/X, he’s reporting that one of Nintendo’s cartridge memory chip makers (The portion of the cartridge that stores the game), Macronix, is moving away from the ROM scene and shifting their focus towards eMMC, NAND based memory, for… Data Centers.
A year ago, Macronix accounted for 26% of its overall sales being allocated to ROMS based memory, which is what Switch cartridges use. As of a Q3 sales report, that number has since fallen to 6%, a 39% drop from last year. There are a number of reasons this could have happened, and I’m sure market trends and conditions can allude to those reasons, but there’s more to it than that.
In any case, a drop in sales figures plus a more lucrative shift to data centers is the reasoning behind the shift.
No, Switch Physical Media is Not at Risk
While initial claims support the fact that Macronix is Nintendo’s primary ROM chip supplier, Nintendo has never came forward with who actually makes their chips and at what capacity. It’s reported that Japanese semiconductor company MegaChips designs the spec for Switch cartridge needs and outsources manufacturing to companies like Macronix, ROHM, and LAPIS.
However, further reports suggest that only ROHM won the contract for the Switch 2 specification ROM cartridges, so the supply chain for Switch 2 games is virtually unaffected by this shift from Macronix. Switch 1 games have one less ROM manufacturer and it’s their biggest one, but it’s worth noting that the Switch 1 ecosystem is already overwhelmingly flooded with physical games to the point where I sincerely doubt you’ll see the full impact of Macronix leaving the ROM business. The Switch 1, release wise, is also on its last legs as the Switch 2 is steadily dominating new Nintendo releases.
The other angle to consider here is that significantly less physical copies are being produced altogether. Memory isn’t just expensive right now, it’s also scarce. As millions of semiconductor chip output is going towards making half baked AI recomps of Breath of the Wild, less of that allocation was being made for ROM based cartridges anyways.
So a drop in YTD sales is expected, and not really indicative of a drop in Switch physical copy demand. Let’s be honest though, more people are going digital, but physical copies are alive and well.
Nintendo’s “Promise”
In the wake of Sony discontinuing new physical releases after January 2028 due to the market trend towards digital, Nintendo has made it well known that physical media is here to stay with the Switch 2 generation.
Nintendo, as a company, has a tendency to make extremely anti-consumer moves, but you can rely on them to mean what they say. In any case, unless this Macronix move is a snowball effect on other companies, I believe our physical Switch games are secure for now.
1 Comment
I 100% disagree with this. But time will tell.