Earlier this week, Sony dealt a devastating blow to the gaming community by confirming that it would no longer offer physical discs for the PS5 from January 2028.

Now, according to a report from Windows Central, it sounds like Xbox’s upcoming Project Helix will launch without a disc drive, potentially joining Sony in ditching the discs altogether. To add fuel to the fire, The Verge is also reporting that Microsoft is tinkering with the idea of converting Xbox One and Xbox Series physical games into digital media.

While the future is unclear, this essentially means that Nintendo could well be the last bastion for physical games going forward. Yes, third-party companies have leant heavily on the Game-Key Card format, but there are many others that still value proper cartridges. Aside from Pokémon Pokopia, first-party releases have also been fully on-cart.

Nintendo has the opportunity here to really stand out from the crowd with the Switch 2 and whatever its next-gen system will be. If it can continue to offer physical games, then it can tap into a market that neither Sony or Microsoft will have access to. Retailers will also be more inclined to dedicate shelf space to proper physical games over download cards (though this admittedly is largely down to whichever publisher pays the most for the retail presence).

Another thing to perhaps consider is the money that publishers will undoubtedly save in foregoing discs entirely for both PlayStation and Xbox. Money that theoretically could partially go into producing proper physical cartridges for the Switch 2. Wishful thinking, perhaps, but food for thought.

It’s also possible, of course, that Nintendo could eventually follow in Sony and Microsoft’s footsteps and ditch physical games, but recent figures state that only 67.2% of game sales for the company within Q4 of FY2026 were digital. We don’t know about you, but we’re not convinced this figure is even remotely high enough to convince Nintendo that physical games are dead.

So we’ll have to wait and see. The future seems pretty grim, regardless, but we’ve got our fingers crossed that Nintendo will do the right thing.