Earlier this week, Sony announced that it will stop producing physical game discs for Playstation games in 2028, claiming that this was due to the market shifting away from physical to digital sales.

Following this announcement, many have voiced concern about whether the other console manufacturers will do the same in the future. Speaking to VGC, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella said he believes Nintendo at least is unlikely to do so.

Nintendo wants to do, and I don’t see them changing anything in their plans based on what Sony or Microsoft do on anything, really. Nintendo is going to be Nintendo, for better and/or worse.”

“Retail has already leaned into Nintendo support more and more over the past few years (Nintendo also holds very strong share of physical software and hardware sales since the launch of Switch 2 in particular), so this could continue to increase, sure.”

That said, Piscatella pointed out that Sony’s move doesn’t mean that they will give up their retail presence altogether. There could simply be a rise of code-in-box releases and other Special Editions that do not come with a physical game disc, although there will still be a decline in physical spending overall.

“It’s not like boxes on shelves will go away entirely with this change. There will be more codes in box, more merch, 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.”

Even so, Nintendo already seems to be testing the waters with the Switch 2’s Game-Key card. While this move still receives considerable pushback from gamers, it pales in comparison to the amount of criticism Sony is facing at the moment. Stay tuned for more updates as they come.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.