Sony Pushes Eject On Blu-Ray Disc Production After 18-Year Run, Is A Successor Coming?

Sony, one of the biggest proponents of the Blu-ray format, announced that it is ending production of all Blu-ray disc media. Same goes for MiniDiscs for recording, MD data for recording, and MiniDV cassettes. The Blu-ray pioneer also confirmed that there will not be a successor to Blu-ray discs, which effectively puts another nail in the coffin of physical media.

The landscape is changing. Walk into your local Best Buy, for example, and try finding a Blu-ray movie. You won't, nor will you find any DVD movies for sale. Streaming is where the money is at (just ask Netflix, which just saw a record increase in streaming subscribers and is nevertheless raising prices again), and lest there be any doubt, have a look around at all of the companies that are exiting the Blu-ray market.

Sony's announcement comes barely a month after LG discontinued its Blu-ray players (though it left the door ever-so-slightly ajar for a comeback of the market dictates). And Samsung abandoned its Blu-ray player business nearly six years ago.

There are more examples, though seeing Sony eject itself from producing Blu-ray discs really drives the point home that an era is ending. I can still remember buying an HD-DVD player rather than Blu-ray when the high definition format wars were just beginning. Despite being more expensive, Blu-ray ultimately won, in part because of Sony (but also due to several other factors).

The market has evolved since then, however, with digital downloads and streaming services putting physical media on a path to obsolescence. We see it in gaming, where launchers and digital distribution platforms like Steam and the Epic Games Store have become the standard way of purchasing titles on PC, and in the TV and movie business. A large part of it is thanks to the availability of faster internet service, and it also helps that TVs routinely ship with built-in smart platforms these days.

Sony exiting Blu-ray disc production makes me wonder the future holds for next-generation game consoles from Microsoft and Sony. Both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 are offered with built-in Blu-ray drives, but will physical media stick around for one more round? Time will tell.