Nintendo has always marched to the beat of its own drum, and for once, that is an incredibly good thing. PlayStation just announced that it would end production of physical games by January 2028. Xbox’s next console won’t have a disc drive whatsoever, effectively following PlayStation’s path. Not Nintendo, though.
Nintendo Won’t Eliminate Physical Games Just Yet
It is hard to blame PlayStation and Xbox for making these decisions. It is highly likely that the data they’re basing these choices on is legitimate. Sony claims that digital games make up the vast majority of their sales, and they’re probably not lying. The same is undoubtedly true for Xbox, especially since the cheaper Xbox Series X|S doesn’t even have a disc drive.
It’s incredibly unfortunate that it’s going to bring about the end of physical media, likely on all fronts. But it’s not really all that surprising. Things have been going this way for a while, and the consumers have driven it to this point by not buying physical games. The game companies bear some blame, especially with how easy and often cheap (thanks to routine sales) it is to buy the digital version.
But for now, that doesn’t apply to Nintendo. According to noted game insider Stealth40k, there’s still a huge chunk of Nintendo’s game sales that belongs to the physical copies of those games. Those tiny little cartridges are going to stick around for a little while longer.
What’s interesting about that is that the company attempted to steer towards a digital-only future with the Nintendo Switch 2. The game-key cards that were introduced were physical, but they didn’t actually contain the game on them like old cartridges did. There was pushback, obviously, and the company had to change course.
That may be what helps stave off the elimination of physical media for a while longer. Because of the reversal to actual game cartridges, people are still buying them for the Switch and Switch 2 at a high enough rate that they cannot afford to switch to digital-only. That’s not the case for Sony or Microsoft, but there’s one bastion still standing.
Of course, this information is simply derived from the last sales report. Nintendo hasn’t released a statement about their plans, nor is there a report on what the next console will be like. The Switch 2 is still new, so it’s not likely that a new console without a cartridge slot at all is going to come out any time soon. The original Switch lasted eight years, so don’t expect a digital-only Switch 3 for another five or six years.
Plus, if Xbox and PlayStation do go down this road, gamers may pivot to Nintendo. If that’s the only place players can actually own a copy of their own games, then there’s a good chance people will change their allegiances, especially since a lot of big, non-exclusive games land on the Switch 2 anyway.
But for now, at least, Nintendo is holding strong. This has always been their MO. When console exclusives went by the wayside, and Halo went to PlayStation and Helldivers 2 landed on Xbox, Zelda, Mario, and Animal Crossing remained on their original consoles only.
The company’s unwillingness to follow trends or do what other companies are doing has sometimes been seen as a negative. This time, though, it’s a huge positive, as at least some gamers will be able to continue buying physical copies of games for at least a little while longer. No one can truly fight back the digital-only future we’re barreling towards, but this is at least a brief reprieve.
