Physical editions still account for 45.5% of Nintendo's game sales as of 2026, according to the company's financial reports, and Nintendo has no plans to stop releasing cartridges. Bill van Zyll, General Manager for Nintendo's Latin American division, confirmed the position in an interview with Coelho no Japão.

The figure matters because it puts Nintendo far ahead of its closest competitors on physical sales. Sony, which will stop releasing discs for PlayStation in 2028, reports a physical share of just 22% — less than half of Nintendo's. That gap explains why Nintendo can keep investing in retail manufacturing while rivals wind it down.

What did Nintendo actually say?

Van Zyll said Nintendo bases its format strategy primarily on customer preferences, and since cartridges remain in demand, the company sees no reason to abandon them.

"We know how much the fans like it as well, so our position has to be agnostic," van Zyll said, framing the company's approach as neutral between physical and digital rather than ideologically committed to either.

For studios and publishers watching Nintendo's platform strategy, the signal is straightforward: retail shelf space and cartridge manufacturing remain a live part of the Switch ecosystem's monetization mix, not a legacy holdover scheduled for sunset.

How do key cartridges fit in?

Nintendo currently ships two cartridge types:

• Full distributions — the cartridge contains the entire game.
• Key cartridges — the cartridge holds only a key that activates a download from the Nintendo eShop; the game data itself comes over the network.

Both types formally count as physical editions in Nintendo's sales reporting, which affects how that 45.5% figure should be read: it includes buyers who purchase a box at retail but still download the game data.

Key cartridges drew heavy criticism when they first appeared. Nintendo has defended them repeatedly, arguing the format lets the company sell games at retail whose file sizes exceed what standard cartridges can hold. In practice, that means large titles can still reach physical retail without a manufacturing change — a commercial argument that has so far outweighed the collector and preservation concerns raised by players.

Why the numbers justify the strategy

The contrast with Sony frames the decision. Sony's 22% physical share and its 2028 disc cutoff reflect a business where digital distribution dominates. Nintendo's 45.5% physical share — significantly higher than other major publishers, per its financial reports — means walking away from cartridges would cut off nearly half of its sales channel.

Van Zyll's emphasis on customer preference aligns with that math. Nintendo's audience, which includes a large family and collector demographic in markets like Latin America, keeps buying boxes.

For retail partners and logistics operators, the commitment means continued cartridge production, distribution and inventory planning across Nintendo's hardware cycle. For developers shipping on Nintendo platforms, it means physical SKUs — including key-cartridge variants for oversized builds — stay a relevant part of launch planning rather than an afterthought.

What happens next?

No policy change is pending; Nintendo's stated position is continuity. The metric to watch is whether that 45.5% physical share holds as digital storefronts and subscription offerings grow — and whether Sony's 2028 disc exit pushes the wider industry's physical share down far enough that Nintendo's cartridge economics come under pressure.