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2026-11-04 · News and analysis
Affiliate disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Learn more.
Macronix, the Taiwanese memory company that makes the ROM chips inside Nintendo game cards, is getting out of the ROM business. The news came out of its Q3 2026 results and was surfaced by industry analyst David Gibson on 4 November 2026.
The numbers behind the decision are blunt. ROM fell to 5 percent of Macronix's sales. A year earlier it was 26 percent. Sales in the segment dropped 39 percent year on year. There will be no new ROM products, and Q3 2026 is the last quarter the company reports ROM sales as their own line. Capital is going to NOR flash and eMMC NAND instead.
The headlines have mostly landed on "Switch 2 cartridges are under threat." That overstates it, and the reason why is the most useful thing in this story.
The Short Version
- Macronix is exiting ROM manufacturing. No new ROM products, and ROM reporting ends after Q3 2026.
- ROM was 5 percent of its sales, down from 26 percent a year earlier. A 39 percent year on year fall.
- It is moving to NOR flash and eMMC NAND, which is where the margins are.
- Gibson says Macronix makes the ROM chips in both Switch 1 and Switch 2 game cards.
- But ROHM is reported as the main Switch 2 chip supplier, so full Switch 2 cards can continue.
- Macronix was never Nintendo's only supplier. Gibson stressed this himself.
- Physical games are not ending. Nothing here says that, and the analyst who broke it does not say it.
- The real driver is the 2026 memory shortage. AI demand made ROM the least profitable thing to make.
- The likely outcome is more Game Key Cards and more digital, not empty shelves.
- Game Key Cards are the preservation problem, and that problem gets worse from here.
- Nintendo's own earnings were due 5 November 2026, the day after this surfaced.
What Macronix Actually Said
It helps to be precise, because this was a financial disclosure and not a Nintendo announcement.
Macronix said its capacity is limited and it is choosing what to spend it on. ROM is a mature, low margin product, and in the current market every wafer it occupies could be making something worth more. So ROM is being phased out, with no new products, and the company will stop breaking out ROM revenue.
Nintendo is not named as a customer in that disclosure. The Nintendo connection is well established, which is why an analyst covering Nintendo picked it up, but the company announced a product line exit, not the cancellation of a Nintendo contract.
That distinction is why "Nintendo cartridges are being discontinued" is the wrong reading. A supplier left a business. Nintendo's response is Nintendo's to make.
The Switch 1 Versus Switch 2 Confusion
This is where coverage has split, and both halves are circulating as fact.
Gibson, the primary source, says Macronix makes the ROM chips in Switch 1 and Switch 2 game memory cards. That is his wording. Several outlets ran with it and put Switch 2 in the headline.
Genki, reporting the same day, says Macronix is the main Switch 1 game card memory chip maker, and that for Switch 2 the main chip maker is ROHM. The conclusion drawn there is that Nintendo will still be able to make full game cards.
These are not quite a contradiction, and it is worth untangling rather than picking a side. Macronix can supply ROM chips used in both generations while ROHM is the main supplier for the newer one. "Supplies some Switch 2 cards" and "is not the main Switch 2 supplier" are both true at once.
What that means practically:
- Switch 1 is where the exposure is highest. This was its main ROM supplier.
- Switch 2 has another main supplier already. Full data cartridges have a path forward.
- Headlines framing this as the end of Switch 2 physical media are going further than either source.
So if you own a Switch 2 and you were worried your next physical game cannot be made, that is not what the reporting supports.
Why This Is Really About the Memory Shortage
This story is a symptom. The disease is the thing we have been tracking all year in our 2026 gaming price hikes guide.
AI infrastructure is consuming memory manufacturing. Makers have shifted capacity toward high bandwidth memory for AI servers, because a single AI server uses many times the DRAM and NAND of a normal one and pays far better. Everything downstream got squeezed. Conventional DRAM contract prices roughly doubled quarter on quarter in early 2026, and NAND followed.
Game cartridges sit at the very bottom of that priority list. A Switch cartridge is a cheap, mature, high volume, low margin chip. It is exactly what a memory company stops making when it has to choose.
You can already see the consequences in Nintendo's own decisions this year. The Switch 2 went from $450 to $500 in September 2026, with memory costs named as a factor. Physical copies of some first party Switch 2 games now cost more than digital. Reporting this year has put Switch cartridge manufacturing cost in the $12 to $15 range and climbing.
Macronix leaving is not the start of a problem. It is a company responding to a problem that has been visible for a year.
What This Probably Means for Physical Games
Our honest read, separating what follows from what people are guessing.
Likely:
- More Game Key Cards on Switch 2. This is the obvious pressure valve. A Game Key Card needs only a small chip holding a key, not a large one holding a game. If ROM supply tightens and costs rise, the format that uses less of it wins.
- More digital. Nintendo's digital share has been climbing on its own, past 60 percent in recent quarters. This nudges it along.
- Higher priced or less common physical editions, especially for big games that need large cards.
- Switch 1 physical releases winding down faster. That line was already late in life.
Not supported by this news:
- Nintendo abandoning physical media. No source says that and the analyst who broke the story explicitly noted other suppliers exist.
- Your existing cartridges being affected. A chip you already own is unaffected by who makes new ones.
- An immediate shortage. A phase out is a phase out. Existing orders and inventory do not vanish.
The medium term risk worth watching is not availability, it is which format a game ships in. "Physical release" and "the game is on the cartridge" have been drifting apart since the Switch 2 launched, and this accelerates the drift.
The Preservation Problem Is the Real Story
Here is why this matters more than a supply chain footnote, and it connects to something we wrote about in the Switch 2 dumping coverage.
A Game Key Card looks like a cartridge and sits in a retail box, but it holds no game. It is a key. Insert it and the console downloads the actual game, and you need the card present to play afterward.
That breaks preservation in a way a normal cartridge does not. Japan's National Diet Library has said it will not preserve Switch 2 Game Key Cards, on the grounds that it collects physical media containing the content itself, and a key card is not content. A national library is declining to archive part of a current console generation.
If Switch 2 download servers go dark in a decade, a Game Key Card is a plastic rectangle. There is nothing on it to read.
So follow the chain. ROM chips get scarcer and dearer. Game Key Cards get more attractive to publishers. The share of "physical" games that contain no game goes up. And the normal preservation route, which is reading the cartridge you own, stops applying to more and more of the library.
That is the part of this story we think is underweighted. The question was never whether physical boxes keep appearing on shelves. It is whether what is inside them still holds the game.
What You Should Actually Do
Not much urgently, but a few things are now slightly more sensible than they were last week.
- If you want a game on a real cartridge, buy it on a real cartridge, sooner. Check whether a Switch 2 release is a full card or a Game Key Card before buying. The box says.
- Back up the cartridges you already own. This is the reliable route and it is unaffected by any of this. Our cartridge backup guide covers the hardware for older systems.
- Do not panic buy. There is no shortage today, and buying games you did not want is a worse outcome than a format change.
- Keep your cartridges in good condition. They are the copy that does not depend on a server.
Our Take
This is a real story being told slightly wrong.
The wrong version is that Nintendo cartridges are ending. They are not, Nintendo has other suppliers, and the main Switch 2 chip supplier is reportedly a different company entirely.
The right version is duller and more serious. The economics of putting a whole game on a chip are deteriorating, because the memory industry has better things to do with its capacity. When that happens, publishers do not stop selling boxes. They sell boxes with less in them. The Game Key Card already exists as the format for that, and this makes it more attractive.
For anyone who cares about owning games rather than licensing them, that is the thing to watch. Not whether the shelf has physical Nintendo games on it, but whether those games are on the card.
We will update this when Nintendo's own earnings commentary and any supplier confirmation land.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Nintendo stopping physical games?
No. Macronix, a chip supplier, is exiting ROM manufacturing. Nintendo has other suppliers, and the analyst who reported this stressed that point. Nothing in the news says Nintendo is ending physical releases.
Does this affect Switch 2 cartridges?
Less than headlines suggest. Gibson's wording says Macronix makes ROM chips in both Switch 1 and Switch 2 cards, but ROHM is reported as the main Switch 2 memory supplier, so full Switch 2 game cards have a supply path. Switch 1 is where Macronix mattered most.
Will my existing Nintendo cartridges stop working?
No. This is about who manufactures new chips. A cartridge you already own is completely unaffected.
Why is Macronix leaving the ROM business?
Money and capacity. ROM fell to 5 percent of its sales from 26 percent a year earlier, with revenue down 39 percent year on year. With memory capacity scarce because of AI demand, the company is putting it into NOR flash and eMMC NAND instead.
Will this make Nintendo games more expensive?
Possibly, though it is one factor among several. Memory costs were already named in the Switch 2's September 2026 price rise to $500, and physical copies of some first party Switch 2 games already cost more than digital. A tighter ROM supply pushes in the same direction.
What is a Game Key Card?
A cartridge shaped product that contains no game data, only a key. You insert it, the console downloads the game, and the card must stay present to play. It is the format most likely to expand because of this news, since it needs far less memory than a full card.
Why are Game Key Cards a preservation problem?
Because there is no game on them to preserve. Japan's National Diet Library has said it will not archive Switch 2 Game Key Cards, since it collects physical media that contains the content and a key card does not. If the download servers shut down, the card is inert.
Should I buy physical Nintendo games now?
If you specifically want the game on the cartridge, buying sooner is reasonable, and check the box to confirm it is a full card rather than a Game Key Card. There is no shortage right now, so there is no reason to buy games you did not already want.
Is this related to the memory shortage?
Directly. AI infrastructure demand pulled memory manufacturing toward high bandwidth memory, prices for conventional DRAM and NAND spiked through 2026, and low margin products like game ROM chips are the first thing a maker drops.
Related Reading
- 2026 gaming price hikes and the memory shortage behind all of them
- Switch 2 ROMs dumped, including the Game Key Card preservation problem
- How to back up game cartridges you already own
- Emulation legal status in 2026
- Switch 2 emulation on handhelds
- Best Evercade cartridges, a physical format that is not going anywhere
Written 4 November 2026, the day the Macronix results were surfaced. Nintendo's own earnings were scheduled for 5 November 2026, and no supplier arrangement here has been confirmed by Nintendo itself. The ROHM detail is sourced to same day reporting rather than a company statement.
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