Ignacy Giżyński
Not long ago we wrote about LG's decision to stop producing Blu-ray players. Now Sony is joining the ranks of companies turning away from physical media. The Japanese giant has officially confirmed that it is ending the production of writable Blu-ray discs and has no plans for a successor.
This is another sign that the "disc era" is fading into obscurity. Just a few years ago, Blu-ray was considered the future of home entertainment, offering higher picture quality and more storage space than DVDs. In the age of streaming and cloud services, which have become the standard, writable discs have slowly become a relic of the past.
The decision by Sony does not only concern Blu-ray – the company is also withdrawing from other formats, such as MiniDisc, MD Data, and Mini DV tapes. Production of these media will be completely halted in February 2025. Fortunately for collectors, movies on standard Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray discs will still be released, at least for now.
It's hard to say that this is a big surprise. Already last year, Sony was planning to cut costs and reduce staff in the department dealing with the production of physical media. There were even talks about laying off 40% of the employees in this segment. Everything indicates that the demand for recordable discs has fallen to the point where their further production simply no longer makes sense. Does this mean the definitive end of physical media? Not yet, but it cannot be denied that "recordable discs" have fallen out of favor and are unlikely to make a comeback. Sony is simply accelerating what already seemed inevitable.
