Macronix, the main producer of physical Nintendo cartridges, announced today that it is withdrawing from the business.
Macronix has been producing ROM chips for the original Nintendo Switch for years, and that continued with the Switch 2. But today the company made it known that there would be no new ROM products. The third quarter is the last quarter where ROM sales are reported separately.
In its financial report, Macronix said ROM had fallen to 5 percent of its revenue. A year ago it was 26 percent. The Macronix president noted that the capacity is limited and will instead be intended for NOR and eMMC memory chips.
Analyst David Gibson, who shared the news, pointed out that Macronix is not Nintendo’s only gaming memory card manufacturer. In other words, collectors don’t have to worry about physical games fading away yet – at least not yet.
Gibson also mentioned that digital sales are increasing for Nintendo – this is something we’ve seen with other companies, but at a higher rate. Between April and June, digital accounted for 61.5% of Nintendo’s software sales, an increase from 59.3% the previous year.
It should be noted that this figure may vary quite a bit. Gibson said Nintendo’s percentage of software sales was between 46.1 percent and 67.2 percent over the past year. Large physical launches can impact the figure.
For more Nintendo Switch 2 Newsconsult our archives.
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