Macronix quitting ROM is a price risk, not a cart funeral

The Macronix exit from ROM used in Switch cartridges is today’s supply-chain story, and GamesRadar’s framing is that Nintendo’s main Switch cartridge manufacturer is leaving while Switch 2 games are unlikely to feel it.¹ I care less about the eulogy tone and more about the bill that shows up later.

Macronix told investors it is gradually phasing out ROM and steering capacity toward NOR flash for data centers, where demand is strong enough that customers are chasing the company for parts.²³ ROM revenue fell 39 percent year over year in the third quarter of 2026 while NOR and NAND surged; ROM is now about 5 percent of the business, down from 26 percent a year earlier, and the plan is to leave ROM entirely by the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2026.²⁴ Wafer capacity is finite, new lines take a year or more, and the low-margin cart chips lose that fight every time.⁵³

Seen it before: when the data-center queue pays better, the consumer line gets the polite goodbye—Micron’s retreat from Crucial followed the same gravity.²⁴

For players who still want a cart on the shelf, this is a cost-and-concentration problem, not proof Nintendo is abandoning plastic. Nintendo said last month it has no plans to ditch physical games, even as Sony moves to end disc manufacturing in 2028, and physical titles were still 38.5 percent of Nintendo’s game sales in the company’s August figures.²⁴ Macronix is also not the only ROM source; reporting names Rohm and Lapis among the suppliers left on the list.⁴⁵

That is the fair counterpoint to panic. Other fabs exist. Digital already made up 61.5 percent of Nintendo’s software sales in the second calendar quarter of 2026, and if cart demand keeps easing, some of the cost pressure can bleed off on its own.⁵ The other side of the ledger still matters: losing a main cartridge-memory partner tightens strained supply, can raise what publishers pay, and can nudge more releases toward Game-Key Cards that skip a full ROM cart—analyst David Gibson’s point, not mine.⁴⁵ Nintendo has already charged more for some physical games than the matching digital download earlier this year.⁵

How alarmed you should be hangs on a detail the headlines blur. GamesRadar says the departure is unlikely to hit Switch 2 games.¹ Eurogamer and Ars Technica describe those ROM chips as parts in Switch and Switch 2 cartridges and Macronix as a main maker for them.⁴⁵ Taipei Times, which carried the earnings detail, ties the ROMs to Nintendo’s Switch consoles without splitting generations.³ “Main Switch supplier, Switch 2 mostly fine” is a calmer story than “primary cart memory for both hardware lines.” Until the supply map is clear, treat the calmer version as a claim, not a patch note.

Our read: Physical is under real supplier stress, not a corporate death sentence. Watch cart prices, Game-Key Card share, and whether the remaining ROM partners actually absorb volume before anyone writes the format off—and keep the Switch versus Switch 2 distinction honest, because that is what sets the volume on the alarm.

Footnotes

1. GamesRadar, “Nintendo’s main Switch cartridge manufacturer is leaving – that’s unlikely to affect Switch 2 games”. Retrieved November 4, 2026. ↩ ↩²

2. The Verge, “Nintendo is losing a Switch cartridge supplier”. Retrieved November 4, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. Taipei Times, “Macronix reports record profit in Q3”. Retrieved November 4, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. Eurogamer, “One of Nintendo’s Switch and Switch 2 cartridge manufacturers is exiting the business, which could make physical games more expensive”. Retrieved November 4, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

5. Ars Technica, “Nintendo’s biggest ROM chip supplier is bowing out of the business”. Retrieved November 4, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶