Macronix, Nintendo’s long-time hardware partner and one of the leading ROM producers, has announced its departure. ROM chips are key components of Switch and Switch 2 cartridges.
Industry analyst David Gibson shared the news on X, announced by Macronix during its latest earnings call. The company plans to completely phase out ROM products by the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2026.
As it stands, ROM products represent only 5% of Macronix’s business, which is down from reported sales for the third quarter. This figure is down significantly from 26 percent just a year ago. As a result, Macronix is shifting its manufacturing capacity to focus on NOR (flash) and eMMC memory chips.
It’s worth noting that Macronix isn’t the only company Nintendo relies on for ROM. Nintendo also sources parts from Rohm Co. (Oki Semiconductor), but the loss of a key partner puts more pressure on the already tight supply, which could lead to higher prices.
As Gibson pointed out, this could also push more publishers – including Nintendo – to ship their games as Game-Key Cards, which don’t include physical cartridges, thus avoiding additional costs.
Although not directly stated, this is likely another side effect of the current AI-driven global memory and storage crisis. In addition to making many consumer products unaffordable for millions of people, causing game console prices to rise and putting GPUs out of reach for PC makers, the shortages have also pushed major memory makers to shift resources to business segments where demand is higher.
Nearly a year ago, Micron, one of the world’s three largest memory makers, announced its exit from the consumer memory business and the shuttering of its Crucial brand.
That could put more pressure on Nintendo, already one of the last holdouts to continue investing in physical media, to raise game prices further or abandon cartridges. Last month, Nintendo said it had no plans to abandon physical games, following rival Sony’s decision to end disc manufacturing in 2028.
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