According to a report from Screen Critics, financial statements of the company that manufactures ROM chips for Nintendo may indicate that the upcoming Nintendo NX will no longer rely on discs such as Blu-Ray CDs for their video games, focusing instead on a physical cartridge akin to what was seen on the Nintendo 64 and the SNES before it.
The report states that Macronix, a Chinese manufacturer, is expecting a large order of ROM chips from Nintendo. According to IGN, the news that the company is making ROM chips far more than what Nintendo needs for the cartridges of the Nintendo 3DS indicates that their new console, the NX, will be utilizing them as well.
It is noted that cartridges have no longer been in use since Nintendo released the Gamecube. The Wii had used CD technology and the Wii-U also further adapted downloadable technology where AAA titles could be downloaded directly from the Nintendo online store.
According to the report, the use of cartridges may allow the NX to circumvent the PS4 and Xbox One's need of installing a game onto their hard drives due to their capabilities of processing data quicker than a disc. The lack of a disc drive on the NX would also make the console far more portable, making it a likely candidate for a console-handheld hybrid.
However, the report also points out that the ROM chips may be used internally for the NX, hinting that it may instead feature a system akin to the PS4 and Xbox One. If this is the case then games may be released with a limit of 32 GB of content and players would later need to download and install additional features and game content.
Nintendo has not yet made any official statements regarding what kind of game format the NX would utilize. The console is scheduled to release by March 2017.
