Sony won't phase out Blu-ray movie and game discs, only ceasing production on consumer BD-R

Sony plans to eventually stop producing consumer-grade recordable Blu-ray discs, but commercial products such as game and film Blu-rays will still be produced.

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Sony Group will lay off 250 employees at a division that produces recordable media discs, and start winding down the production of specific Blu-ray products, sources have told Japanese newspaper Mainichi.

However, contrary to recent reports, this decision will not affect Blu-ray discs that contain games, TV shows, or films. The staff reduction is happening to the Sony Sendai Technology Center, which produces recordable disc formats like CD-R, DVD-R, BD-R and archival discs for the Japanese region.

Standard Blu-rays, 4K UHD discs, and PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Blu-ray discs--which are made at Sony's separate DADC (Digital Audio Disc Corporation) facility--will still be manufactured, shipped, and sold worldwide.

In other words, physical media will not go anywhere anytime soon, despite the prevalence and growth of streaming and/or digital media.

As far as gaming goes, Sony's PlayStation Game & Network Services segment does indeed sell far more digital games than physical, however this ratio isn't yet skewed enough to warrant ceasing total production of Blu-ray game discs.

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For example, in FY23, which ended March 31, 2024, consumers purchased 86 million physical PlayStation Blu-ray game discs as compared to 200 million digital games.

Gaming remains one of Sony's most profitable and largest revenue-generating divisions, and as long as consumers are still buying tens of millions of physical game discs a year, it's highly likely that the company will continue manufacturing these profitable products.