Nintendo has said that it has no plans to abandon physical games, despite the industry’s continued shift toward digital releases.
The company said it remains committed to giving players a choice with the Nintendo Switch 2, supporting both physical cartridges and digital downloads.
Nintendo addresses future of physical games
Speaking to YouTuber Coelho no Japão at Brasil Game Show, Nintendo’s vice president and general manager for Latin America, Bill van Zyll, was asked for Nintendo’s stance on the topic and whether it remained committed to physical media.
“Look, historically, we’ve been very agnostic, right? We go off of what the consumer prefers and take that into account very heavily,” he explained.
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“We also have a platform just launched. We’re barely just over a year into NS2. And it’s got both, you know, digital, but it also has physical, that capability.”
Van Zyll then directly addressed whether Nintendo had any intention of moving away from physical releases.
“So, there’s no plans to ditch physical. We know how much the fans like it as well. So, yeah, our position has been to be agnostic.”
While Van Zyll made it clear that Nintendo currently has no plans to discontinue physical games, he didn’t rule out any possibility of that changing in the future.
In addition to physical games, the Switch 2 also uses Game-Key Cards, a sort of hybrid media that doesn’t store a full game but a key to download its respective game online. Such games still require the cartridge in the console to run, even after download.
I’m Abhishek Sharma, an author at TigerJek.com. I enjoy exploring games, testing different strategies, and turning what I learn into clear, useful guides. My goal is to help players understand the game better and improve without the usual confusion.
