Nintendo Sticks with Cartridges as Sony Says Goodbye to Physical Discs

Nintendo has answered a question that had been hanging in the air for weeks: are cartridges' days numbered? According to Vandal, the answer is no. Bill van Zyll, vice president and general manager of Nintendo Latin America, explained in an interview with a content creator that the company has no plans to leave the physical format behind on Switch 2. He acknowledged that a significant share of its players still prefer it, even as digital sales keep growing.

The timing is no coincidence. Sony announced that it will stop producing physical discs for new PlayStation games starting in January 2028, and that decision reopened the debate over what it means to own a game, how titles are preserved, and what future the second-hand market has left. With this move, Nintendo sets itself apart and puts the two big Japanese platforms on clearly different paths. That matters to anyone who buys, collects, lends or resells games.

What you need to know

• Nintendo says it has no plans to abandon cartridge games on Switch 2.
• The company acknowledges that there is still significant demand for physical copies, despite the rise of digital.
• The message comes after Sony announced it will stop manufacturing discs for its new games starting in January 2028.
• The comments were made by Bill van Zyll, head of Nintendo Latin America, in an interview with a creator.
• The controversial game-key cards raise questions about how Nintendo's physical strategy will evolve.

Two opposite paths: PlayStation and Switch 2

Until recently, physical and digital coexisted on every console without much drama. Sony's announcement broke that balance. For the first time, one of the major manufacturers has set a date after which its new releases will no longer ship on disc. Nintendo, on the other hand, is betting on keeping both options and letting players choose.

The asterisk: game-key cards

Here's the fine print. On Switch 2, traditional cartridges coexist with game-key cards, cartridges that don't contain the full game and instead act as a key to download it. On the outside they look like physical media, but they depend on a download. As Vandal points out, their growing presence raises reasonable doubts: if more and more releases arrive this way, the promise to keep physical media alive could end up being a pretty box with little inside.

Our take

Here at Underworld Lordz, we welcome the message, but we're not getting carried away. "Having no plans" is not the same as making a commitment. It's a convenient phrase that reassures fans today and leaves room to change course tomorrow. If Nintendo wants us to believe it, the proof isn't in interviews but in how many of its upcoming releases ship with the full game on the cartridge rather than as a game-key card.

For competitive players, the discussion is more nuanced. In practice, almost everything we play seriously is always online: mandatory patches, seasons and servers. Digital wins on convenience when jumping between titles during a practice session or a tournament. Even so, physical is still an insurance policy. If a store delists a game or a license expires tomorrow, a cartridge with the game on it keeps working. And for scenes built around older titles, being able to preserve them exactly as they are isn't nostalgia, it's survival.

For content creators, physical media is also a story to tell: special edition unboxings, collections, comparisons and retro content ten years from now. A digital-only catalog is a catalog that depends on third parties. That's why we think Nintendo is fundamentally right and Sony is taking a risk with its most loyal community. Still, we're asking the Big N for consistency: either the cartridge is truly a game, or it's just a key shaped like a cartridge.

What do you think?

The debate is more alive than ever, and opinions across the team are all over the map. Do you care about owning your games physically, or are you already 100% digital? Do you see game-key cards as a trap or as the lesser evil? Let us know in the team chat or on our Discord: would you buy a Switch 2 game if it only came out on a game-key card?