In the fiscal year 2025, Nintendo reported that 45.4% of its game sales revenue came from physical Switch cartridges, while 54.6% came from digital content. Digital sales include downloadable games, additional content (DLC), games that are only available digitally, and subscriptions to Nintendo Switch Online. This balance contrasts sharply with competitors like Sony, where digital content accounts for about 80% of revenue. Sony has also announced that it will stop supporting physical PlayStation game discs by January 2028, marking a significant shift toward digital distribution in the gaming industry. The upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 console features a cartridge port that is compatible with games from the original Switch, allowing players to use existing physical games. The new cartridges for Switch 2 have a capacity of 64 gigabytes (Go), double the size of the original Switch cartridges, which ranged from 1 to 32 Go. However, producing these larger cartridges is expensive for game publishers. ININ Games, a publishing company behind the game R-Type Dimensions III, noted in a blog post that switching to physical cartridges would significantly raise production costs. This could lead to a potential price increase of around 15 euros for consumers. To address these costs, Nintendo introduced an alternative called game key cards. These are physical cards that contain digital game codes, similar to download codes but in a physical form. Unlike cartridges, these cards do not include storage space, making them cheaper to produce. However, they are not a long-term solution, as they will become obsolete when the Nintendo eShop, the digital store for Switch games, is eventually closed. The eShop has been offline since March 2023, though players can still download content they previously purchased. Recent rumors suggest that Nintendo may offer smaller capacity cartridges for the Switch 2, such as 16 and 32 Go versions, which would cost 10 euros less than the 64 Go cartridges. ININ Games confirmed this on social media, but Nintendo is known for keeping its plans confidential. As a result, very few Switch 2 games have been released on physical cartridges so far. Many publishers are opting for game key cards or digital distribution instead. A notable exception is the upcoming release of Stellar Blade, a game originally developed for the PlayStation 5. Shift Up, the developer, announced that the Switch 2 version will be released as a 32 Go physical cartridge on November 5. This marks the first time a studio has publicly confirmed the cartridge capacity for a Switch 2 game, offering some clarity on the physical distribution strategy for the new console.