Nintendo Says It Has No Plans to Ditch Physical Games While Sony Ends PlayStation Discs in January 2028

By CriticalPixel · 2026-10-12

Nintendo just said out loud what a lot of collectors were hoping to hear: physical games are staying. Speaking at the Brazil Game Show, Bill van Zyll, Nintendo's vice president and general manager for Latin America, told the YouTube channel Coelho no Japão that "there are no plans to ditch physical." GameSpot picked up the comment, and it lands at a moment when Sony has already decided to stop pressing discs for PlayStation. The quote is short, a little corporate and carefully hedged, but it draws a clear line between the two platform holders. Here is what was actually said, what it does not promise, and why it matters if you still keep a shelf of boxes.

Nintendo Switch 2 in tabletop mode on an official Nintendo product banner

What Nintendo actually said

The full quote is worth reading slowly. Van Zyll said: "Historically, we've been very agnostic. We go off what the consumer prefers, and take that into account very heavily. We also have a platform that was just launched. We're barely just over a year into NS2, and it's got both digital and also physical, that capability. There are no plans to ditch physical. We know how much the fans like it as well, so our position has been to be agnostic." That is the wording as GameSpot transcribed it from the interview, whose video title promises talk of a Zelda pre-sale and a Direct for Brazil. The key word is agnostic, and he used it twice. Nintendo is not promising to print cartridges forever. It is promising to follow what buyers do, which is a very different guarantee.

Why agnostic is the word to watch

Agnostic is a polite way of saying demand decides. If enough people buy digital, the physical side can shrink without Nintendo ever breaking a promise, because the promise was never about discs or carts. Sony took the opposite route, and it put it on a calendar. GameSpot reports that Sony confirmed disc production for PlayStation consoles ends starting January 2028, with all new first-party and third-party games arriving through the PlayStation Store and retailers in digital formats only. Sony's stated reason is that physical disc sales have declined and that the move lines up with how most of its community prefers to play. The same report adds that the PS3 and PS Vita stores are closing and that the next PlayStation is expected to ship without a disc drive in its base model. That is a date, a mechanism and a reason. Nintendo gave you a mood.

Game-Key Cards are the asterisk

Before anyone throws a parade, remember that Switch 2 already has a physical format that is not entirely physical. Game-Key Cards arrived this generation as a low-cost option for developers, and they act as an authentication key. You insert the card and still download the game to the console. GameSpot notes that these cards are not tied to your account, so you can sell them on later, which preserves some of the ownership upside. First-party Nintendo games and the upcoming Stellar Blade: Complete Edition do carry the full game on the cartridge. So the answer to whether Nintendo still ships physical is yes, but the quality of that physical release depends on the publisher. A box that still needs a big download is closer to a license receipt than a game you can lend to a friend.

Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con 2 controllers held in hands on an official Nintendo product banner

How the community is taking it

Reaction is limited so far, and I will not pretend there is a consensus. The story only surfaced a few hours ago, and most of the chatter around Brazil Game Show right now is about tickets and booth locations. The clearest take I found came from an account on X that set the two companies side by side: PlayStation ends discs in January 2028, Nintendo says there are no plans to ditch physical, and in that account's words Sony picked the industry's direction while Nintendo picked your shelf. Another account, JediJoystick, posted a Spanish language summary of the same quote without commentary. That is two voices, one of them a straight relay of the news, so treat it as a mood and not a verdict.

The CriticalPixel take

Here is my read. A regional vice president answered a YouTuber's question at a trade show. He did not issue a global statement from Kyoto, and he did not commit to a number of years. The word yet is in GameSpot's headline for a reason. Even so, the contrast with Sony is useful, because it gives collectors a straight answer to the question of where a physical library still has a home. It is also the cheapest PR win available: saying no plans costs nothing, while Sony has to take the heat for putting a date on the end of discs. Judge Nintendo by what ships. If first-party games keep arriving with the full game on the cart, and Game-Key Cards stay a niche for small publishers, the agnostic line holds. If the third-party catalog turns into a pile of download keys, the shelf argument gets thin fast.

Nintendo Switch 2 controller held in two hands on an official Nintendo product banner

For now the practical advice is boring and sensible. If you care about owning games, buy the cartridge versions that hold the full game, check the box for the Game-Key Card note before you pay, and keep your old discs and carts in good shape, because the market is shifting underneath them. Nintendo has said it is staying agnostic. Sony has said when it is leaving. Only one of those statements can be marked on a calendar, and that is the one you should plan around.