Nintendo’s main supplier of memory chips for physical Switch cartridges is reportedly stepping away from the business. According to analyst David Gibson of MST Financial, Taiwanese semiconductor company Macronix is phasing out its ROM partnership with Nintendo, meaning it will no longer produce new ROM products for Switch game cards.

Gibson said ROM accounted for just 5% of Macronix’s third-quarter sales, down from 26% a year earlier. The company’s chairman reportedly said its production capacity is limited and that Macronix will focus instead on NOR and eMMC memory chips.

This does not necessarily mean physical Switch games are disappearing immediately. Gibson believes Macronix is not Nintendo’s only game-memory-card supplier, so cartridges will likely continue to be produced for some time.

However, fewer ROM suppliers could raise production costs, giving Nintendo more reason to push digital sales and Game-Key Cards—physical boxes that contain a download key rather than the full game. Gibson also noted that 61.5% of Nintendo’s software sales from April to June were digital, a 2.2% increase from the previous year.

Nintendo has recently reaffirmed its commitment to physical media after Sony announced it would stop producing game discs starting in 2028. Nintendo executive Bill van Zyll said the company will continue supporting both physical and digital formats, emphasizing that fans still value cartridges.

Still, the reported exit of a major chip supplier could make physical releases more expensive to produce. Nintendo has already begun charging more for certain physical editions, including Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, which costs $70 physically compared with $60 digitally.

The bigger issue for many players is the rise of Game-Key Cards. These physical Switch 2 releases do not contain the full game on the cartridge; instead, they act as a key that lets players download the game from the Nintendo eShop.

That means even “physical” games can become inaccessible if Nintendo eventually shuts down its digital storefronts. While the Wii U and 3DS eShops still allow players to redownload previously purchased games, new purchases are no longer possible—making long-term preservation a growing concern.

For now, physical Nintendo games are not going away. But Macronix’s reported exit is another sign that the future of cartridges may become more expensive, more digital-dependent, and less guaranteed than fans would like.