Sony announces that it will officially end production of recordable Blu-ray discs in February

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Could this be the final nail in the coffin?

A stack of Blu-ray cases on a wooden shelf
(Image credit: Future)

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

Lewis Empson
Senior Staff Writer

Lewis Empson is a Senior Staff Writer on What Hi-Fi?. He was previously Gaming and Digital editor for Cardiff University's 'Quench Magazine', Lewis graduated in 2021 and has since worked on a selection of lifestyle magazines and regional newspapers. Outside of work, he enjoys gaming, gigs and regular cinema trips.

7 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Just Pele
    Well, that's it for Sony, not buying any new films or shows from them, because streaming isn't owning.
    Reply
  • no-name-123
    Just Pele said:
    Well, that's it for Sony, not buying any new films or shows from them, because streaming isn't owning.
    Are we sure that the article is not only refering to recordable media?
    As I understand it discs are also used to make a copy of digital purchaces, and other data back up
    So we will all have to use 'other brands'.
    Reply
  • DavidMackenzie
    Lewis, the article text is written in a way that suggests the production of movies on Blu-ray Disc is ending. It isn’t.

    This news is simply the actioning of Sony’s previously announced discontinuation of recordable blanks (burned discs).

    It has absolutely no bearing on the professionally replicated BD-ROM movie discs that you’d buy in a high street shop (or online, as is increasingly the case).
    Reply
  • no-name-123
    DavidMackenzie said:
    Lewis, the article text is written in a way that suggests the production of movies on Blu-ray Disc is ending. It isn’t.

    This news is simply the actioning of Sony’s previously announced discontinuation of recordable blanks (burned discs).

    It has absolutely no bearing on the professionally replicated BD-ROM movie discs that you’d buy in a high street shop (or online, as is increasingly the case).
    Typical of journalists that are meant to have a serious education, they have to write content that distorts and misleads.

    Only a thought, does anyone know which camp M-O-D titles, as in manufactured on demand rather than mod music related stand in?


    Yes I know there is a message waiting for me, ref the envelope with a red 1.
    I will read it when time allows
    Reply
  • yug
    For goodness sake, I'm sick of publications misleading people. It's ceasing production of recordable consumer discs - the blu-ray equivalent of CD-Rs - and not the discs used to print pre-recorded media.

    It's like these publications rely on click-bait... ugh
    Reply
  • DavidMackenzie
    no-name-123 said:
    Typical of journalists that are meant to have a serious education, they have to write content that distorts and misleads.

    Only a thought, does anyone know which camp M-O-D titles, as in manufactured on demand rather than mod music related stand in?


    Yes I know there is a message waiting for me, ref the envelope with a red 1.
    I will read it when time allows
    For the few MOD titles that are actually individually burned onto BD-Rs, they still won’t be affected, because to the best of my knowledge, the companies duplicating those are not using Sony media anyway.
    Reply
  • DELBOY14
    What Hi-Fi? said:
    Sony announced it will end production of Blu-ray discs in February of this year.

    Sony officially ends production of Blu-ray discs : Read more
    No, Sony will still produce Blu-ray for us to consume, it's just blank disks, the Japanese love for recording TV content has died away as has demand.
    Reply