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Cartridge Maker Exits ROM, Leaving Nintendo to Play Memory Monopoly

November 5, 2026 at 6:01 AM EST · New York time

Macronix says its production of ROM chips has reached its end and it will gradually decouple from the game industry, raising questions about the future supply of physical Nintendo game cartridges. Analyst David Gibson identifies the company as Nintendo's main memory chip maker for physical games. The chips power cartridges for the Switch and Switch 2. Macronix's exit could affect the cost and supply of those games, although the announcement does not establish that physical cartridges will disappear. A transition in a major supplier is a problem to manage, not proof that every game box is about to become an antique. The wider memory market helps explain the anxiety. Demand associated with AI has pushed up prices and tightened supplies across components including RAM, SSDs and GPUs. Now the scramble for memory has reached a product whose appeal is partly that it sits on a shelf instead of demanding more storage space. Physical game buyers have long enjoyed a simple proposition: put the cartridge in and play. The supply chain behind that little piece of plastic is less simple. It must compete for industrial attention with a technology sector eager to build enormous systems that can explain, at considerable length, why a cartridge is convenient.

Satire. Not factual reporting. Read the original reporting from the linked publishers.