Sony to Stop Manufacturing Blu-ray Media, Effective February 2025

[T0@st]

Sony Japan's Recording Media department has announced the retirement of several physical media formats—most notably Blu-Ray Disc—in a very brief notice addressed to "valued customers." Mid-last year, the Japanese multinational conglomerate revealed that it would stop production of consumer-grade recordable Blu-ray discs (BD-RE and BD-R)—citing a decline in demand and the format's inability to meet "business goals." As pointed out by Tom's Hardware, today's announcement indicates (via machine translation) that both "regular and recorded" product lines are affected—the publication has reached out to Sony for comment/clarification.

Optical media enthusiasts/preservationists will, undoubtedly, be angered by this news—manufacturing activities will cease at some point next month. The corporation's message contains a lot of finality: "thank you for your continued patronage of Sony products. We will end production of all models of Blu-ray Disc media, MiniDiscs for recording, MD data for recording, and MiniDV cassettes as of February 2025. There will be no successor models. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to our many customers for their patronage to date."



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[ScaLibBDP]

>>...Optical media enthusiasts/preservationists will, undoubtedly, be angered by this news...

Honestly, I've never used, or watched, any context stored on a Blu-ray disk since it requires the Blu-ray compatible media player.

Would I consider a termination of Windows 95 support by Microsoft many years ago as a Disaster? No. Should I be angry about it? No.

Note: For tests of some 32-bit software I use an Acer Aspire Netbook with of Windows 95 ( 1st release ).

 

[Sound_Card]

But you don't own the movie anymore. Everything moving to cloud is a move to take your ownership away including the very operating system you are most likely using now (windows or apple). Even worse, I predict that eventually they will move past buying movies altogether, and instead for everyone to have a subscription service.

 

[Dristun]

Wow. That's wild. So many niche publishers might go out of biz. No more Arrow, ShoutFactory, Criterion Collection editions? No way. I know it's like 10 thousand people around the globe buying these but there's gotta be a way for someone else to manufacture them? I imagine if there isn't, the physical editions will move to memory cards or some other form of flash storage, because while miniscule there does exist a continued hardcore demand for high quality uncompressed 4K stuff with nice extras and nice boxes.

 

[Hecate91]

Optical media enthusiasts/preservationists will, undoubtedly, be angered by this news

Optical media enthusiasts/preservationists shouldn't be the only ones upset by this news, anyone who doesn't want to lose being able to watch a movie without paying for a bunch of subscription services should be disappointed.

 

[nageme]

Would I consider a termination of Windows 95 support by Microsoft many years ago as a Disaster? No. Should I be angry about it? No.

It's not comparable. Here it's a medium format, not the content.

So many niche publishers might go out of biz. No more Arrow, ShoutFactory, Criterion Collection editions?

Sony stopping production doesn't mean others can't continue releasing. See what's happening with vinyl records in recent years.

 

[chrcoluk]

This is related to recordable media, akin to CDR and CDRW, I dont think it affects things like games and movies. It also is consumer only.

 

[Dristun]

Sony stopping production doesn't mean others can't continue releasing. See what's happening with vinyl records in recent years.

Yeah, you're right, I thought for a moment that they're the only ones with a license or something like that.

 

[Selaya]

ig that also means that the ps5 will indeed be the last console to feature physical media. brave new world indeed.

 

[Upgrayedd]

I was about to go on a long conversion session of old cassettes, VHS and DVDs, family home movies.
M-Disc is still king when it comes to preservation?

 

[cjcox]

Sony: We want Bluray to be the HD disc format!

Industry: Maybe not.

Sony: We'll pay you big bucks to go "our way"!

Industry: Well ok, then.

Sony: We're #1 because our format was best!!

Industry: I guess you avoided the embarrassment of Betamax all over again.

Sony: Hold my beer.

 

[mtosev]

I still have an optical drive as I buy movies on dvd and Blu-ray.

 

[rattlehead99]

>>...Optical media enthusiasts/preservationists will, undoubtedly, be angered by this news...

Honestly, I've never used, or watched, any context stored on a Blu-ray disk since it requires the Blu-ray compatible media player.

Would I consider a termination of Windows 95 support by Microsoft many years ago as a Disaster? No. Should I be angry about it? No.

Note: For tests of some 32-bit software I use an Acer Aspire Netbook with of Windows 95 ( 1st release ).

Bad Analogy. Windows 95 is not supported, but you can get Windows 10/11. Nintendo 64 cartridges are no longer made, but you could get blu-ray.
Also the real loss is the ownership of the games you buy, even though on disc that has been eroding away.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

Good news, those with 20 seconds can allay fears of a Blu-ray apocalypse:
Wikipedia, Blu-ray Manufacturers

Bad news, this is the signal that ownership is one step closer to dead. With the modern DVD/Blu-ray now nearly cheaper than a month of Netflix, or most online media purveyors, it's getting to the point where owning your stuff will be cheaper than streaming again...and Sony bows out from the market because they crapped the bed with PC support. It's great that even today, it dang near takes the illegal act of DRM stripping movies to get them to play in a computer, unless you want a $100 player that does nothing else.


Sigh....I'm conflicted, apathetic, and angry. This feels like blue balled instead of rayed...and that's about as much wit as I'm willing to put forth on something Sony never cared enough about the consumer to provide a decent experience with. It's also the only theoretical source of true 1920x1080 content...but with as ugly as the stuff modern Hollywood puts out maybe it's time for a low-fi restart.

 

[TheLostSwede]

1. Sony is killing consumer recordable media, not the discs used to sell movies on, which are "pressed" in factory with content on them.
2. Regular Blu-ray is dying anyhow, Ultra HD Blu-ray will still be around for 4K content.
3. Blu-ray was launched in 2006 and turns 20 next year...

Then again, som people still buy movies on DVDs, a format from 1996...

 

[Upgrayedd]

1. Sony is killing consumer recordable media, not the discs used to sell movies on, which are "pressed" in factory with content on them.
2. Regular Blu-ray is dying anyhow, Ultra HD Blu-ray will still be around for 4K content.
3. Blu-ray was launched in 2006 and turns 20 next year...

Then again, som people still buy movies on DVDs, a format from 1996...

I kinda read it as they'll still make BDR-DL or bigger at first but then later on it says all bluray disc. So I really don't know just from this.

 

[ymdhis]

This is such a shame, blu-ray discs still have higher bitrates than streaming services, and of course there's the fact that you can actually own the data that way instead of only being able to see it through the internet.

Hopefully other disc makers will be able to make up for this and the format is not yet dead.

Speaking of bluray discs, what will they even use for Playstation games then, since those still come in boxes? Are they just plastic boxes with a download code inside now?

 

[nageme]

2. Regular Blu-ray is dying anyhow, Ultra HD Blu-ray will still be around for 4K content.

When I see BR and I think any type of BR. Is anyone making a distinction?

If it's just recordable media, were Sony a big manufacturer?
I haven't been following in recent years, but in the DVD days tier 1 manufacturers/brands were Taiyo Yuden, Verbatim/Mitsubishi, TDK. Tier 2 maybe Ritek, CMC, Moser Baer...

 

[Prima.Vera]

Wait, those Bluray disk include the Ultra HD BR disks for 4K movies??
I constantly buy those for my collections.

 

[lexluthermiester]

It should be noted: Sony is NOT the only company making BluRay discs and drives.

 

[jimmyxxx]

Is there future for a different storage format to deliver media cheaply? I don't like the future that we are heading to. Streaming might be convenient and have a low entrance cost, but you do not always get the best quality.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I don't like the future that we are heading to.

Right there with you man.

 

[TechBuyingHavoc]

Is there future for a different storage format to deliver media cheaply? I don't like the future that we are heading to. Streaming might be convenient and have a low entrance cost, but you do not always get the best quality.

I have been hoping for a next-gen optical storage format for a while now but we never got one after Bluray. Sometimes, a single lightweight bit-rot resistant disc that can store all your important data is very useful (a Go bag, etc).

 

[Operandi]

Optical media enthusiasts/preservationists shouldn't be the only ones upset by this news, anyone who doesn't want to lose being able to watch a movie without paying for a bunch of subscription services should be disappointed.

This is the real reason you average fan of movies, TV, ect. should care. Picture and sound quality are thing but the way streaming is structured the consumer has no ownership of anything, and its cost prohibitive for any service to have access to everything and unlike music if the actors and crew don't get paid nothing is going to get created so constant transfer of rights from service to another and things just outright disappearing is only going to get worse. Streaming is is always going to be crap experience if you are interested in anything that isn't of the moment, its only going to get worse and more expensive over time. I don't care about collecting physical media and I've never even owned a physical DVD or Bluray but I own tons of Bluray movies simply because its the only way you can actually own any of it.

 

[nageme]

@Operandi
Streaming quality and bitrate can be improved, and there were some high bitrate sources (Sony's Bravia/Pictures Core is supposedly "30-80Mb", though unclear if nerfed since originally introduced).

Streams can be captured, or someone might start offering simple downloads.
Whether someone actually will, that's another question.