Nintendo confirms it has no plans to abandon physical Switch 2 games

[Shawn Knight]

In a nutshell: In a recent interview with Brazilian YouTuber Coelho no Japao, Bill van Zyll – VP and GM of Nintendo Latin America – shared the company's stance on physical game sales on the Switch 2. Simply put, Nintendo won't be making the same mistake that Sony did.

Asked about Nintendo's stance on physical media, Zyll said that historically, the company goes off what the consumer prefers. They're barely a year into the launch of the Switch 2, he continued, which supports both digital and physical media.

"There's no plan to ditch physical," he said, adding that Nintendo knows how much fans like it.

That stance is in stark contrast to the position Sony has taken. Earlier this year, the company announced it would stop making physical games for its PlayStation console starting in January 2028. Sony cited consumer preferences and an overall shift in the entertainment industry as reasons for the change, adding that going digital only will allow them to better accommodate how people access and play games.

Not everyone agreed with Sony's reasoning. There are still lots of gamers that seek out and even prefer physical media, and it's these consumers that are set to bear the brunt of the decision. Future game collectors will also be impacted as there simply won't be anything tangible to collect.

There are several valid reasons why Sony would want to abandon physical media, and they mostly tie back to money. Manufacturing, shipping, and distributing physical games is costly, not to mention the fact that they take up valuable space on retail shelves. With digital delivery, there's no risk of running out of inventory. Digital essentially eliminates the used game market and opens the door to additional new game sales down the road.

Now that the dust has settled a bit after Sony's announcement, where do you stand on the subject? Are you all for the convenience of digital or do you still prefer something tangible that you actually own? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Nintendo confirms it has no plans to abandon physical Switch 2 games

 

[The Talking Tech]

Often when people think physical media in games, they automatically think discs...but it doesn't have to be, imagine how great it would be if games could be sold on a small high speed flashdrive, as it would be no different than Nintendo's flash cards.

Flash memory is the way to go for physical media games.

 

[Megalomaniac]

My plan with Switch 2 was to get a large Micro SD Express card and download everything to it. I am not a kid in school. I am not trading or lending games with anyone. I like having a library of classics I can plany at anytime.

Naturally the memory crisis has totally screwed everything up.

1TB is still around $300.

Nintendo should make the Switch 2 refresh capable of using 2230 M.2.

In fact: everyone should.

1 or 2TB is way easier to get.

 

[Xelions]

Wtf happened to giving consumers choices and companies maximising profit?!

Even Nintendo doesn't realise their full potential. No more instruction manuals, not enough collectors editions, some games ain't even on cartridge because of their file size, the list goes on..

 

[Xelions]

I'm gonna add this as a separate comment since it's worthy of it.

I've been gaming my whole life - whether that be single player story based, racing, strategy, RPG, space sim, platformer, multiplayer LAN and online fps, PC gamer, console, etc. I may not have logged a fu#$ load of hours but I've got a decent count.

If I was VP of Nintendo I would smash Sony and Microsoft out of the park. The potential is there. Their gaming catalogue is massive. Act on it, and appropriately. You can still be everything you are and bigger - nothing is lost!

 

[dangh]

We lost this war when Steam happened. Nintendo is saying they will be physical on Switch 2 (even if some of physical cartridges are only a download triggers), but I wouldn't be surprised if Switch 3 would be rather different on that front. We already have a lot of a game-key cards in a physical box which is same as removing physical releases (yakuza 0, star was outlaws, dragon quest remakes, street fighter 6 and many more) so they already are not really truthful (unless you consider a code in a box a physical game...). And with their history and accommodating to customer needs I'm not very optimistic.

Good on Nintendo to at least trying to address one of current, vocal issues. But remember, this company were requesting youtuber to share their profits with Nintendo, if they were playing their games. They aren't your friends, as any other large company, they are there to make money and squeeze you dry.

 

[MarkHughes]

Often when people think physical media in games, they automatically think discs...but it doesn't have to be, imagine how great it would be if games could be sold on a small high speed flashdrive, as it would be no different than Nintendo's flash cards.

Flash memory is the way to go for physical media games.

My Evercade is kinda like that, Just small carts that can work in the handheld or tv console, I wouldn't be surprised if the internals of the carts was just a flash drive.