Yesterday’s industry shaking announcement from Sony that it would be ditching physical games entirely for PlayStation consoles starting in 2028 has left many wondering: What comes next for the games’ industry? It seems Microsoft will follow suit, despite reportedly working on some disc-to-digital system, but what about Nintendo? According to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, it’s unlikely The Big N will follow suit by ditching cartridges, at least for the remainer for the Nintendo Switch 2’s life.
Speaking to VGC, Piscatella said, “My gut says Nintendo does what Nintendo wants to do, and I don’t see them changing anything in their plans based on what Sony or Microsoft do on anything, really. Nintendo is going to be Nintendo, for better and/or worse.” Noting how retail has embraced Nintendo more and more over the last few years, it doesn’t seem likely that the company would remove itself from retail spaces so easily.
That said, switching to digital-only titles doesn’t mean Sony is expunging itself from storefronts. “It’s not like boxes on shelves will go away entirely with this change,” Piscatella explains. “There will be more codes in box, more merch, maybe more special editions with swag included, that kind of thing. But the change should also result in the continued decline in physical game retail spend.”
It is entirely possible that Nintendo does follow suit and stops producing cartridges for the Switch 2. There’s a semi-concession with the Game-Key Card system, though that’s still technically a physical edition of a game. More importantly though, Japanese gamers are still at a mostly even split between physical and digital sales, and the Switch 2 has been extremely popular in its home country. Cutting out an entire market just to follow trends doesn’t make sense, and is especially not what Nintendo typically does.
For now at least, the Switch 2 is likely to stick with physical copies. Who can say what comes next, but we’re still quite some ways out from a potential Switch 3 to worry about it now.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
