In a recent interview with YouTube channel Spawn Wave, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella was asked a range of questions about how the video games market has been trending towards digital for the past few generations. While the Nintendo Switch 2 launched with an emphasis on physical media, Piscatella believes that the company is starting to accelerate its transition towards digital-only sales with the new console.
Starting off by talking about Nintendo’s competitors, Piscatella said, “I don’t think the next Xbox will have a disc drive.” Commenting on Sony’s plans, Piscatella added, “Given current attach rates of the PlayStation add-on drive to the digital versions of that console I’m 50/50 that’ll happen again, I’m not sure. There are a lot of parts of the world where physical is much more important than say in the U.S… But we are getting there.”
When it comes to Nintendo, however, Piscatella believes that Nintendo is beginning to ramp up its plans to shift to digital-only. “There is that dedicated buyer that loves physical but like you said that mix is continuing to shift,” Piscatella stated, “and with the most recent Switch model you know we are seeing that shift happening a little bit faster even on Nintendo.” We don’t have any kind of data to suggest that digital is stronger on Switch 2, but physical sales for games have dropped a bit, while titles like Mario Kart World have managed to shift over six million units since release. That likely implies people are grabbing it digitally.
Piscatella doesn’t believe the shift will happen overnight. Nintendo, historically, has focused on retail outlets for its titles and often caters to different markets with lavish collector’s editions. For the immediate future, physical isn’t going anywhere, but the Switch 2 might be the catalyst that gets Nintendo to start prioritizing digital over physical. Only time will tell.
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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.
