The senior director at Circana has stated that Nintendo is unlikely to follow Sony and Microsoft’s plans to drop physical media.
There was a significant uproar in the gaming industry yesterday after PlayStation announced that it will stop producing game discs starting in January 2028. Shortly after this announcement, we learned that Xbox is developing a disc-to-digital feature that will allow players to digitize their Xbox game libraries.
This situation has left players concerned, as it appears that the gaming industry is moving away from physical media. However, it seems that Nintendo may be the last console manufacturer to continue supporting it.
Nintendo ‘Unlikely’ to Follow PlayStation and XBOX’s Plans on Dropping Physical Media
In conversation with VGC, Circana senior director and video game industry advisor Mat Piscatella discussed Nintendo not changing its plans on physical media based on what Sony and Microsoft do. Piscatella first discussed how sales of physical video games have been consistently declining since 2000, and that the US physical market has only seen slight growth recently, thanks to the Switch 2, but that growth isn’t expected to last.
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Piscatella then discussed how Sony’s decision to drop physical media would lead to “lower sales of video game software at retail” and that it is “safe to assume that both PlayStation 6 and Project Helix will be digital-only devices.” However, this could leave Nintendo “as the last console manufacturer that will produce physical media through at least the end of the Switch 2 lifecycle.”
The Circana senior director added that Nintendo “will be unlikely to stop releasing cartridges in response” to Sony’s decision to stop producing physical media and to Microsoft’s plans to digitize games. However, Piscatella added that “nothing is certain” as there have already been many surprises this year.
He went on to state, “my gut says Nintendo does what Nintendo wants to do, and I don’t see them changing anything in their plans based on what Sony or Microsoft do on anything, really.” Nintendo has also had retail lean into its support, increasing in the past few years.
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Moreover, the change will not lead to boxes on shelves going away; rather, “there will be more codes in boxes, more merch, maybe more special editions with swag included, that kind of thing. But the change should also result in the continued decline in physical game retail spend,” Piscatella stated.
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