Nintendo says it has "no plans" to drop physical games

Nintendo isn't ready to give up on physical games. In an interview with Brazilian YouTuber Rodrigo Coelho (Coelho no Japão), Bill van Zyll, Nintendo's vice president and general manager for Latin America, said there are "no plans to ditch physical" media, adding that the company knows "how much the fans like it."

What Nintendo actually said

Van Zyll described Nintendo's approach as historically "very agnostic," explaining that the company goes off "what the consumer prefers" and takes that into account heavily. He pointed to the Nintendo Switch 2, where games are sold in both digital and physical formats.

That wording matters: it's a statement about current plans and customer demand, not a permanent guarantee. If buying habits shift further toward digital, Nintendo's approach could change too.

The wider context

The comments land at a time when physical media is shrinking elsewhere in the industry:

• Sony has announced that production of physical discs for new PlayStation titles will end, pushing new releases toward digital downloads and codes.
• Take-Two has said that its upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI will be fully disc-less.

Against that backdrop, Nintendo's hardware design already favors physical releases. The Switch 2 uses game cards, and Nintendo has built features such as shareable licenses tied to those cards.

What it means for players

For people who like to collect, lend or resell games, Nintendo remains the major console maker most committed to physical copies — at least for now. Physical cards can also be useful for players with limited storage or slow internet connections, since a game card doesn't require a large download to get started (although some games may still need updates).

If physical ownership is important to you, it's worth checking each game's box or store listing: some physical releases are "game-key cards" that contain a download key rather than the full game.

Quotes are from the interview as reported by The Verge, Eurogamer and TechRadar.