Bill van Zyll says Nintendo's approach to physical and digital releases is guided by what consumers prefer

As spotted by Eurogamer, vice president and general manager of Nintendo Latin America, Bill van Zyll, told YouTuber Coelho no Japão that the company acknowledged fans' interest in physical media, and stressed it is guided by what consumers want.

"Historically, we've been very agnostic, right?" he said. "We go off what the consumer prefers, and take that into account very heavily."

He noted that the Nintendo Switch 2, which launched in June 2025, is "barely just over a year" into its life and has "both digital and physical" capability.

"There's no plans to ditch physical," van Zyll added. "We know how much the fans like it as well, so our position has been to be agnostic."

Switch 2 games can be bought digitally, mainly through the Nintendo eShop, or on cartridge. Some cartridges hold the full game, while others, known as Game-Key Cards, only serve as a license for the digital version.

As Eurogamer notes, these Game-Key Cards have drawn consumer pushback on several releases when buyers discover their physical version is only a key card.

The comments follow Sony's announcement in July that it will end production of physical discs for all new PlayStation games from January 2028. The change applies to new releases from that date. Sony announced it in a post on the PlayStation Blog and cited a shift in customer behavior toward digital purchases.

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