Macronix, Nintendo’s main supplier of ROM chips for Switch cartridges, is phasing out that business, according to MST Financial analyst David Gibson. It sounds like bad news for physical games, but the evidence so far suggests Switch 2 cards mostly come from other makers, and Gibson himself doesn’t expect cartridges to disappear soon.
“Nintendo’s main memory chip maker is quitting the Switch business. Macronix, which makes the ROM chips in Switch 1 and Switch 2 game memory cards, is phasing out that business. There will be no new ROM products, and Q3 is the last quarter it reports ROM sales separately.”
ROM fell to 5% of Macronix’s Q3 sales, from 26% a year ago
Gibson says ROM dropped to 5% of Macronix’s third-quarter sales, down 39% from a year earlier, and that the chairman says capacity is limited and is going to NOR and eMMC memory chips instead. We haven’t seen a statement from Macronix or Nintendo on what this means for game cards, so this rests on Gibson’s reading of the company’s results.
Switch 2 cards may come from Rohm and another maker instead
This is the disputed part. Gibson’s post says Macronix makes chips for both Switch 1 and Switch 2 cards. But a November 2025 analysis by Nintendo Patents Watch quoted Macronix saying its R&D work for the new console was still incomplete, and said Switch 2 Game Cards were only being made by Rohm and an unidentified company.
That analysis is a year old, and Nintendo doesn’t publish its supplier list, so we can’t confirm whether Macronix ever started shipping Switch 2 chips. If it didn’t, its exit mainly touches Switch 1 cartridges.
Gibson expects more Game-Key Cards, not the end of physical games
“My view: Macronix isn’t Nintendo’s only game memory card maker, so physical cards will likely carry on for some time. But at the margin, digital will grow, through more Game-Key Cards (which hold a download key, not the game) and digital-only sales.”
Gibson notes that 61.5% of Nintendo’s software sales from April to June were digital. Nintendo’s latest public position points the other way on cartridges: “There’s no plans to ditch physical,” Bill van Zyll, its VP and general manager for Latin America, said in October.
Nintendo’s November 5 results are the next chance for an answer
Nintendo reports its financial results on November 5, so investors may raise the supplier question there. Until Nintendo says something, there’s no sign that any cartridge release is changing.
