Macronix, longtime Nintendo hardware partner and one of the main producers of ROM memory, has announced it’s leaving the business. ROM chips are key components in Switch and Switch 2 cartridges.
Industry analyst David Gibson shared the news on X, which Macronix announced in its latest earnings call. The company plans to phase out ROM products entirely by the end of the third quarter of fiscal year 2026.
As it stands, ROM products represent just 5 percent of Macronix’s business, going off its reported sales for the third quarter. This is down significantly from 26 percent just one year ago. As a result, Macronix is shifting manufacturing capacity to instead focus on NOR (flash) and eMMC memory chips.
It’s worth noting that Macronix is not the only company Nintendo relies on for ROM memory. Nintendo also sources parts from Rohm Co. (Oki Semiconductor), but losing a key partner puts more pressure on the already strained supply, which could result in higher prices.
As Gibson pointed out, that could also push more publishers – including Nintendo – to ship their games as Game-Key Cards instead, which do not include physical cartridges, avoiding the extra cost.
Although not directly stated, this is likely another side effect of the ongoing, global AI-driven memory and storage crisis. On top of making many consumer products unaffordable for millions, causing the prices of game consoles to rise and putting GPUs out of reach for PC builders, the shortages have also caused major memory manufacturers to redirect their resources to business segments where demand is higher.
Nearly one year ago, Micron, one of the three largest memory manufacturers in the world, announced it’s exiting the consumer memory business and shutting down its Crucial brand.
This could put more pressure on Nintendo, already one of the last holdouts continuing to invest in physical media, to raise prices of games even further or abandon cartridges. Just last month, Nintendo said it has no plans to ditch physical games, in the wake of rival Sony’s decision to end disc manufacturing in 2028.
