Macronix, one of Nintendo’s main ROM manufacturers for physical game cartridges, is ceasing ROM production altogether.
This comes from analyst David Gibson who relayed the news of Macronix’s latest financial publication. According to the data, ROM products accounted for only 5% of the company’s overall revenue in the third quarter of 2026, representing a sharp decline of 39% year-on-year.
It will now focus on NOR and eMMC memory chips, and will no longer report ROM sales separately in future financial releases.
Gibson is keen to point out that Nintendo will have other partners to use for cartridge production, but the move could nonetheless accelerate the transition to selling digital games alongside Game-Key Cards.
Digital sales have already accounted for more than 60% of Nintendo’s total sales during the fourth quarter of 2026 and the first quarter of 2027, but this tends to fluctuate based on major game releases.
It will be interesting to see if Nintendo itself addresses this development in its own financial statement, which it is expected to release this week, on November 5. Although it doesn’t acknowledge it in its own filings, it seems likely the question will come up during the company’s regular Q&A session. We will keep an eye out and pass on his reaction and plans for the future.
For now, it’s probably business as usual for Nintendo, but we’ll be interested to see how this affects physical cartridge production in the future and whether it will actually speed up the transition to digital.
Gn tech
