Macronix, the Taiwanese memory maker Kotaku describes as Nintendo's main ROM supplier for Switch cartridges, is phasing out ROM production. The decision came out of the company's third-quarter results on October 27, and Kotaku attributes it to chief executive and chairman Miin Wu. MST Financial senior analyst David Gibson flagged it in a post on X on November 4.
For players, the question is what this means for physical Switch games. Kotaku and AUTOMATON both say Macronix isn't the only company making these chips, and none of the reports below describes a shortage.
We couldn't check Macronix's own results presentation directly, so every claim here is attributed to the outlets reporting it.
What Macronix's numbers show
The figures explain the decision. AUTOMATON reports that ROM made up 26% of Macronix's revenue in the same quarter a year earlier, though Kotaku dates the 26% figure to Q2 2025. This quarter that share was 5%, with ROM sales down 39% year on year. Nintendo Life reports the same 5% and 39% figures in its report on Gibson's post.
At the same time, the rest of the business is booming. AUTOMATON puts third-quarter net profit at a record NT$10.95 billion and links it to strong demand for memory chips used in generative AI. Kotaku gives the same record as roughly $337 million and says Wu credited customer demand for NOR flash used in data centers.
Kotaku quotes Wu describing a move toward "more NOR flash solutions for data centers" and "allocating capacity to NAND, a high-growth segment that will drive Macronix's long-term expansion." The Taipei Times carried a fuller report on the results.
According to AUTOMATON and Kotaku, Gibson says there will be no new ROM products and that this was the last quarter Macronix will report ROM sales separately. None of the reports gives a date for when production will end.
Which cartridges are affected
This is where the coverage disagrees, so it's worth being careful. Gibson's post, quoted by both Kotaku and AUTOMATON, says Macronix makes the ROM chips in both Switch 1 and Switch 2 game cards. Nintendo Life's headline also names both systems.
Kotaku takes a different view. It says Switch 2 cartridges use NAND flash memory from ROHM Semiconductor and so will seemingly be unaffected. AUTOMATON says only that ROHM chips have been identified in Switch 2 game cards, and that Macronix isn't the only maker of these ROMs. It also stops short of calling Macronix the main supplier, describing it as one of the known makers.
So the safest reading is this: Switch 1 cartridges are the clearest exposure, Switch 2 is unsettled, and only Nintendo can say how its supply is split.
The outlets do agree on the near term. Nintendo Life says Gibson stressed that Nintendo has other partners for cartridges, and AUTOMATON reports that he expects game cards to keep circulating for some time even as digital's share grows. Kotaku also cites Gibson on that share: digital made up 61.5% of Nintendo's software sales from April to June 2026.
What happens next
Nintendo Life notes that Nintendo's own financial release is due on November 5 and expects the subject to come up in the company's usual Q&A. None of the reports cites a response from Nintendo, so that is the next place to look for a real answer on supply.
Mason's take: The word to watch here isn't "cartridge", it's "capacity". My read is that Macronix didn't walk away from Nintendo because physical games stopped selling. It moved because AI-era memory now pays far better than game cards do. That's a pressure no platform holder fully controls, and I'd expect it to shape the cost of physical games long before it threatens their existence.
Reporting notes
