Nintendo has no plans to abandon physical games, Bill van Zyll, vice president and general manager of Nintendo Latin America, told YouTuber Coelho during an interview at the Brazil Game Show, according to Kotaku.
Van Zyll said Nintendo has historically avoided favoring one format and instead weighs consumer preferences. Switch 2, he noted, supports both digital and physical games. “There are no plans to ditch physical,” he said. “We know how much the fans like it as well, so our position has to be agnostic,” Insider Gaming reported.
The wording describes Nintendo’s current position rather than a promise that every future release will include a complete game cartridge. The company is keeping physical distribution in the mix, but physical Switch 2 products already take more than one form.
A VICE explainer distinguishes standard cartridges, which hold game data, from game-key cards, which unlock a download and must remain inserted during play. Some retail boxes contain download codes instead of cartridges, so Nintendo’s continued support for physical releases does not make every boxed copy equivalent.