Analyst: Nintendo could be the last console maker to stand behind physical games after Sony’s disc exit

The video game industry is changing quickly as many gamers wonder about the future of owning physical games or seeing them on store shelves. Just a few days after Sony announced that it would stop producing physical discs for new PlayStation games in 2028, many gamers turned their attention to other console makers, such as Xbox and Nintendo, and wondered how they might respond.

While Xbox and Nintendo have not made any official statements, prominent Circana analyst Matt Piscatella spoke to VGC about the future of physical video games. According to Piscatella, Nintendo could be the last console maker to stand by physical media, even if that includes digital key cards.

For context, Matt Piscatella is Circana’s executive director and a longtime video game industry analyst. In his interview with VGC, he noted the long-term trend in video game sales and said, “Sales of new physical video games have fallen every year since the late 2000s.”

He then discussed Sony’s recent announcement about the discontinuation of physical disc production and said, “It was inevitably going to happen someday. I didn’t think an announcement would happen today, but hey, it’s 2026, and things just happen all the time, don’t they?”

In the interview, he also mentioned the next generation of consoles, including the PlayStation 6 and Project Helix. He said this shift would likely result in lower retail sales of video game software, making it increasingly likely that both the PlayStation 6 and Project Helix will be digital-only devices.

As for Nintendo, Piscatella predicted, “My gut says Nintendo does what Nintendo wants to do, and I don’t see them changing anything in their plans based on what Sony or Microsoft do or say. Really, Nintendo is going to be Nintendo, for better or worse.”

Currently, Nintendo has strong retail support. Piscatella continued, “Retail has already leaned into Nintendo support more and more over the past few years, so this could continue to increase. It’s not like boxes on shelves will go away entirely with this change. There will be more codes in boxes, more merch, and maybe more special editions with swag included, that kind of thing, but the change should also result in the continued decline in physical game retail spend.”

Buy the Nintendo Switch 2 on Amazon