Physical media, it seems, is dying.
Across the entirety of the tech industry, support for optical discs and flash cards has been on a steady decline for some time now. Computers have shed their internal DVD drives, smartphones have lost their microSD cards, major players like Samsung and LG have pulled out of the dedicated Blu-ray player market altogether, and big box retailers like Best Buy have shuttered their music, movie, and TV show isles.
Even in the home video game space, which has been notoriously resistant to change, the tides have been slowly but surely turning. PC gamers have been living an all-digital lifestyle for several years now, and, most recently, Sony has confirmed plans to end the production of physical PlayStation games starting in 2028. Valve’s Steam platform is decidedly disc-free, and, although Microsoft has announced a new disc to digital licensing scheme, the future of physical XBOX media is as uncertain as ever.
This is all around a disappointing state of affairs for lovers of physical media, though it’s not all doom and gloom out there. The good news is that a physical media renaissance appears to be taking hold in a grassroots manner, with more and more people turning their backs on streaming services and the like in favor of such things as real ownership, fortification against censorship, collectibility, trade-ability, among other tangible, pragmatic perks.
Then, there’s the single physical media diamond in the rough that needs no introduction: Nintendo.
Nintendo is sticking to its guns
Indeed, Nintendo has been steadfast in its support for physical games media for decades. The Japanese company has always prioritized offering customers access to its latest titles in a physical capacity, even after it introduced digital AAA product sales in the 3DS and Wii U era.
When the Switch launched in 2017, Nintendo continued this tradition, offering up physical game cards right alongside its eShop listings, and shipping every single Switch model and revision with a built-in game card slot. Then, in 2025, the Switch 2 was released to the public, once again touting a card slot.
There was some initial controversy with the Switch 2, what with the confusion surrounding game key cards (a game card variant that requires an internet download to play the game in question), but, by and large, Nintendo’s first-party Switch 2 titles have thus far been fully physical, with minimal day one patches to boot.
…Nintendo has been steadfast in its support for physical games media for decades.
Mercifully, we now have confirmation that Nintendo is well and truly all-in on physical media now and into the future. In an interview with Coelho no Japão on YouTube (via Nintendo Everything), Bill van Zyll, vice president and general manager of Nintendo Latin America, stated that the company is sticking to its guns.
“Historically, we’ve been very agnostic, right? We go off what the consumer prefers, and take that into account very heavily. We also have a platform that was just launched. We’re barely just over a year into NS2. It’s got both digital and physical — that capability. There’s no plans to ditch physical. We know how much the fans like it as well, so our position has been to be agnostic.” says Zyll.
To be clear, Nintendo isn’t a perfect actor. The company has a bad track record when it comes to retro game preservation, and its Nintendo Switch Online Classic Games Library is rent-only thanks to its subscription-based model. The big N could be doing much more to spearhead the physical games cause, but, overall, it’s hard to argue with the Switch 2 and its game cards.
Who knew cartridges would outlast discs?
Video games and cartridges are a match made in heaven
Back in the nineties, optical-based media was set to completely devour cartridge-based game media. The PlayStation 1 with its CD support trampled the Nintendo 64, with the former’s discs capable of holding much more data than the latter’s cartridges.
Nintendo, for its part, released the GameCube, the Wii, and the Wii U with optical disc support, but it never gave up on cartridges on its handheld devices. Then, the Switch launched as a hybrid home console and portable system with cartridges back in 2017, serving as the precursor to the Switch 2 and its cartridges.
Cartridges, then, are here to stay, and Nintendo is the company championing their continued relevance.
Uniquely, with the PlayStation 5 sunsetting discs in the near future, it’s cartridges that are set to remain in the gaming mainstream — a surprising turn of events if you ask me. It’s worth noting, of course, that the ‘cartridges’ of the Switch aren’t technically the same as the ones found on retro consoles — they’re more like flash memory cards and less like RAM sticks. Nevertheless, the Switch’s game cards are sufficiently cartridge-esque enough to fit the bill in my eyes.
Personally, as someone with major nostalgia for the Game Boy and the Game Boy Advance, I welcome cartridge-based media’s circling back of popularity with open arms. There’s something very ‘gamer-y’ about a cartridge (or a game card) that scratches an itch of mine in a way that, by and large, optical discs simply can’t. Cartridges, then, are here to stay, and Nintendo is the company championing their continued market relevance.
