Nintendo's biggest ROM chip supplier is bowing out of the business
The largest supplier of ROM memory chips to Japanese video game company Nintendo is leaving the business. Game cartridges could become more expensive, though Nintendo says it does not plan to abandon them soon.
Nintendo, the maker of the Switch game consoles, is losing its biggest supplier of ROM chips, which is exiting that business. ROM chips are the memory chips that store game data in physical cartridges. The change could make cartridges costlier to produce, but it does not mean Nintendo will follow Sony into a world without physical game production.
Nintendo's plans
Last month Nintendo said it had no plans to give up game cartridges in the near future. For its remaining ROM chips, the company will have to rely on suppliers such as Rohm and Lapis Semiconductor.
Possible price effects
Higher production costs could also affect the prices publishers charge for physical Switch cartridges. Earlier this year Nintendo began charging more for some physical games than for the equivalent digital download. Last year Japanese publisher Inin committed to a full cartridge release of R-Type Dimensions III only after two new, smaller cartridge storage capacity sizes for Switch 2 lowered the cost of producing them.
Digital sales
The source also notes that digital software made up 61.5 percent of Nintendo's business in the second calendar quarter of 2026, up slightly from a year earlier. If that share keeps rising, lower demand for ROM-based cartridges could in time offset the added costs.
