TAIPEI — Macronix Exits Nintendo Switch Cartridge Chip Market

Macronix, the Taiwanese chipmaker that supplies most of the ROM chips in Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 game cartridges, told investors this week that its ROM production "has reached its end" and that the company will begin "gradually decoupling from the game industry," according to Macronix's third-quarter earnings report as reported by the Taiwanese outlet BigGo Finance and relayed by Ars Technica. For anyone who buys a physical copy of a Switch game, that decision sets up a supply squeeze that could land on store shelves before the chips themselves run out.

Why Is Macronix Giving Up on ROM Chips?

Analyst David Gibson described Macronix as Nintendo's "main memory chip maker" for physical cartridges, per Ars Technica. But ROM chips have become a shrinking slice of Macronix's own business — down 39 percent in the past year and now just 5 percent of the company's output, the earnings report said. Macronix's wafer capacity is capped at 25,000 12-inch wafers a month, and the company is funneling that limited capacity toward NOR- and NAND-based memory and eMMC chips, which fetch higher prices than game ROM chips, according to the report.

Is Nintendo Still Making Cartridges?

Yes, for now. Nintendo said last month it has no plans to abandon game cartridges in the near future, Ars Technica reported. The company is expected to lean more heavily on remaining suppliers Rohm and Lapis Semiconductor to fill the gap left by Macronix.

"[Macronix's ROM production] has reached its end," the company told investors, adding that it will begin "gradually decoupling from the game industry."

Will Switch Cartridges Cost More?

That is the open question. Nintendo already started charging more for some physical games than their digital equivalents earlier this year, Ars Technica noted. Smaller cartridge storage capacities helped lower costs enough last year that Japanese publisher Inin committed to a full physical release of "R-Type Dimensions III" for Switch 2, according to the outlet — a sign that even modest chip savings can shape which games get a cartridge at all.

How Did the Shortage Build?

• Past year: Macronix's ROM output falls 39 percent as AI-driven demand pulls wafer capacity toward higher-margin memory chips.
• This year: Nintendo begins charging more for some physical titles than digital downloads.
• Last month: Nintendo reaffirms it has no near-term plans to drop cartridges.
• This week: Macronix tells investors its ROM business "has reached its end."
• Ahead: Macronix has $1.2 billion in new capacity planned, but Ars Technica reports that capacity will take a year or more to come online.

Could Digital Sales Offset the Hit?

Possibly. Digital software made up 61.5 percent of Nintendo's business in the second calendar quarter of 2026, up slightly from the year before, Gibson noted. If that share keeps climbing, shrinking demand for cartridges could help balance out the higher production costs Nintendo may face from its remaining chip suppliers, according to the analyst's comments cited by Ars Technica.

For shoppers, the near-term picture is unchanged: cartridges are still being made, and Nintendo has made no public move toward an all-digital model. The chip squeeze is a supply-chain story for now, not a store-shelf one — but it is the kind of pressure that tends to show up in price tags months later.