Sony has announced that it will cease production of Blu-ray discs next month. In a statement shared by the company, it announced that "Blu-ray disc media, recording mini discs, recording MD data, mini DV cassettes" will all get the axe in February, confirming towards the end of the announcement that "there will be no successor models".
This marks the end of an 18-year journey for the company after Blu-ray became commercially available to the masses in 2006. It follows a decision to end production of recordable Blu-ray discs for the consumer market in July of last year. During that time, Sony stated that it would continue producing optical discs for business and corporate use (specifically for storing data for secure, long-term usage) until it became unprofitable; unfortunately, it appears that the time has come.
As streaming services have become the preferred way to watch movies and TV shows, sales of physical media have declined rapidly, resulting in this move from Sony. That being said, other manufacturers such as Panasonic don't yet appear to be following suit.
There are also plenty of other use cases for Blu-ray which should ensure its survival for the time being; for example, PlayStation and Xbox games use Blu-ray discs, and we're seeing its uptake in the music industry increase as artists release their work on the higher resolution format.
There is also the question of 4K Blu-ray which is still a relatively new format in the grand scheme of things. There have been questions regarding its future, especially considering that the current lineup of 4K Blu-ray players (almost entirely manned by Sony and Pansonic, aside from some specialist brands such as Magnetar and Reavon) hasn't been updated in many years. The good news is that, to our knowledge, they are produced by a separate entity, with pressing plants in Mexico and Germany remaining operational.
Sony's withdrawal from the Blu-ray manufacturing scene is still a huge loss, however. It's an especially tough pill to swallow when we consider how it has pioneered the format by including a Blu-ray disc drive on the PlayStation 3. That being said, there are still plenty of manufacturers producing the format, so we hope to see it live on in an increasingly difficult uphill battle against streaming.
MORE:
4K Blu-ray is on the verge of dying out and no one seems to care
Check out our picks for the best Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray players
And our picks for the best media streamers