Sony to discontinue Blu-ray discs and other physical media in February

Sony will cease production of various physical media in February. These include Blu-ray recordable disks, MiniDV minicassettes, and others. Sony also said it will not produce anything to replace these forms of data storage.

Sony of Japan has issued a concise and simple statement, explicitly stating that it will stop producing Blu-ray discs starting in February. MiniDV cassettes, writable minidiscs, and MD-Data disks will also be officially consigned to history starting next month.

It’s worth noting that Sony will no longer produce Blu-ray discs. The standard Blu-ray discs used by retailers to sell movies, games, and other content will continue to be produced, so the format is not going away yet. Instead, Sony will stop producing new Blu-ray discs that consumers could use for self-storage (i.e., discs that can be burned to media or data).

This move is another in a long line of similar decisions by other manufacturers moving away from physical media. Given the rapid growth of streaming media and consoles such as the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, which have rapidly adopted digital services, the demise of physical media such as Blu-ray should not come as a big surprise. LG has announced that it will stop manufacturing and selling Blu-ray players in December 2024. Sony is still producing Blu-ray players (as are several other small OEMs).

Despite Sony’s exit from the market, consumers can still buy Blu-ray discs from other companies, such as Verbatim. However, it is unknown how long they will be available. It seems that most users prefer external hard drives and similar devices (which are not subject to scratches or other environmental influences) to optical media for storing their data.

Source: notebookcheck