Nintendo Addresses GTA 6 on Switch 2 as Lineup Expands Beyond Family Games

Nintendo has been sharing its thinking on game formats, and if you like owning your games on a shelf, it's a message worth hearing. Bill van Zyll, Nintendo's VP and General Manager for Latin America, confirmed the company has no plans to abandon physical games and understands how much players value that choice. The timing matters.

The industry has been moving from physical to digital for a while now, and Sony is preparing to leave discs behind entirely. That has left many people unsure what the future of game collecting looks like. At Nintendo, though, no major changes are coming, and the Nintendo Switch 2 is being treated as a platform where both formats belong.

Van Zyll explained that the company has always stayed neutral on format.

It follows customer preferences and weighs them heavily. He added that the Nintendo Switch 2 launched recently, is barely a year old, and supports both digital and physical releases. He said there are no plans to drop the physical side because Nintendo knows fans enjoy it, so the company's stance remains neutral.

The sales picture backs him up. An industry insider who tracks the numbers says physical sales still make up a large share of Nintendo's software business, and the company simply isn't in a position to get rid of them. That is especially true for the Nintendo Switch 2, where retail copies remain a big part of the mix.

Among the major platform holders, Nintendo is the most focused on physical media. Depending on how you read the data, the split could land close to 50/50, especially once you separate and count DLC and digital-only content. Even if it falls short, it's still at least 60/40. That leans much further toward discs and cartridges than its rivals, and well beyond Microsoft, which has pushed Game Pass for years.

Game Pass has shaped how core XBOX fans buy games. Many have grown used to not paying for first-party titles, and when they do buy one, it's usually on the digital storefront. Most of the time, they simply download it through Game Pass.

You can see the same shift in stores.

Nintendo gets the largest floor space at retail and the broadest range of physical products, while XBOX is shrinking to a small display of controllers, accessories, and consoles, with hardly any discs on show. Sony's direction is already clear. The company isn't backing down and plans to stop making discs starting in 2028.

It hasn't explained what happens to people who already own discs, or how those would work on the PS6 if it ships without a disc drive. It hasn't mentioned a disc-to-digital path like the one XBOX is offering its customers. Sony is most likely heading for an all-digital setup as well.

That's a worrying spot to be in. When the main storefront is the only place you can buy a game, a title from six to ten years ago can stay at full price. In a physical market, that same game might sit in a GameStop discount bin for $5. Having physical games on the shelf gives you more options.

Being able to buy, trade, resell, or lend a game to a friend for as long as you want is a real benefit. Without it, companies hold the power over your purchasing decisions and can set prices however they like. With no competition pushing them toward aggressive sales, that usually means higher prices and fewer discounts.

The hope is that the next generation from XBOX and Sony changes direction and brings back some form of physical release.

Until then, if you're already in the Nintendo Switch 2 ecosystem or planning to join this generation, there's nothing to worry about in the near term. The same should go for the next console, Switch 3 or whatever it ends up being called, since the sales split gives Nintendo every reason to keep supporting physical games.

One thing worth watching is the $10 lower price on digital versions of Nintendo Switch 2 games, and how that affects the split over time. For now it sits around 50/50 or 60/40, and it remains a priority for the company. If you're a collector who picks up first-party Nintendo releases in physical form whenever you can, you can keep doing what you're doing.

Nintendo's US president, Devon Pritchard, also made headlines with comments about the game lineup and GTA 6. Pritchard said Nintendo has long described itself as a company for ages 5 to 95, and that this still holds. The goal is to offer a range of game types and experiences, which he called important.

Some players get excited about role-playing games like Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, while others want something cozy like Pokémon Pokopia. Nintendo wants to be a platform where people can show up and have different kinds of fun. On whether GTA 6 could come to the system, which hasn't been announced, he said that's a conversation for Take-Two and Rockstar, and he had nothing to share on his end.

The variety claim holds up better than it ever has.

Nintendo has always marketed itself as family-friendly, but the third-party lineup now goes well beyond that. Elden Ring arrived recently, alongside Stellar Blade, Lies of P, and other Souls-likes. Call of Duty is guaranteed day-and-date for the next ten years, which should appeal to shooter fans.

Survival horror is represented too, with Resident Evil Requiem running well and launching at the same time as other platforms. Monster Hunter Wilds is due in December, and footage shows it running in handheld mode and looking excellent.

Together, the Nintendo Switch 2 covers everything from cozy, relaxing games to intense action RPGs, Souls-likes, and a deep JRPG library. If Nintendo keeps building those relationships with developers through this generation and into the next, it's well placed to reach that 5 to 95 range.

The GTA 6 side of things feels like a non-story. Nintendo and Rockstar don't often work together, but they operate similarly, each focused on its own projects and announcing things on its own schedule. Pritchard's answer can be read as the ball sitting fully in Rockstar's court. Rockstar would surely like a mass-market game of that size on the Nintendo Switch 2.

It still remains unclear whether the CPU can deliver that level of detail and character work on a hybrid console.

The studio would also have to want to take on the development and optimization work it would likely require. It could turn out to be the impossible port, one that can't happen without major sacrifices on the Nintendo Switch 2, though it's worth seeing how the game runs on the base consoles at launch first. Coming over isn't out of the question.

Rumors suggest work is already underway, but nobody knows how far along it is or whether the developer will skip Nintendo again this generation. Collection packs have appeared on the platform, but GTA V never made it to the original Switch and still hasn't been announced for the Nintendo Switch 2. Whether the new game follows is only time will tell.