Nintendo's biggest ROM chip supplier is bowing out of the business
And what that could mean for physical Switch game costs.
Nintendo's key ROM chip supplier, Macronix, is discontinuing its ROM chip production, according to the company's third-quarter earnings report. Macronix announced that it will gradually decouple from the game industry and focus on more profitable, in-demand chips such as NOR- and NAND-based memory and eMMCs. This move could pose a challenge for Nintendo, which relies heavily on Macronix as its primary ROM chip manufacturer for physical game cartridges.
The company's ROM production has declined by 39 percent in the past year and now accounts for only 5 percent of Macronix's overall business. With Macronix's production capacity currently limited to 25,000 12-inch wafers per month, the shift to more lucrative chip types is causing ROM chips to occupy valuable wafer space that could be better utilized for more profitable endeavors.
Written by urgent.news from Ars Technica's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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