In a press release relayed by Tom’s HardwareSony announced the imminent closure of its latest Blu-Ray production site. An initiative that does not bode well for this technology, and that may mark the end of optical storage supports as we know today.
The arrival of Blu-ray in the early 2000s launched a small revolution in the world of entertainment. With its storage capacity much higher than that of good old DVDs, this standard played a significant role in the democratization of multimedia content in very high definition. Thanks to its significant sustainability and the big efforts of its designers to ensure its long -term management, it has long been presented as a new standard.
Streaming, executioner of records
But that was without counting the management taken by the entertainment industry. Over the years, the public has become more and more used to consuming content directly online, in particular through streaming platforms. We can notably cite the essential Netflixwhose popularity really started to explode shortly after the introduction of the Blu-ray.
Over the years, it has become more and more obvious that physical storage supports would have a lot of trouble winning their war against these 100 % digital, much less restrictive services. Admittedly, there is still a revival of love for local storage at the moment, in particular because of the increasingly questionable commercial shenanigans of the streaming giants which continue to increase their prices without guaranteeing the availability of works in the long term.
But in the end, the trend remains the same: Blu-ray have become less and less remunerative, so much so that Sony has More financial interest in keeping this section of its activity under infusion.
The end of an era
In mid-2024, the Japanese multimedia giant therefore made the decision to end the production of Blu-ray intended for the general public. Until now, he continued to produce it for his large commercial customers and businesses. But specialists in the sector largely considered that Sony only pushed the inevitable – and they were right. The firm's press release explains that the last cleaver will fall in February 2025, with the closure of the last production site.
-Technically, this does not mean that global production of Blu-ray will stop overnight. Indeed, Sony is not the exclusive owner of this format; Technically, this honor goes to the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), the business consortium that is responsible for developing the format and issuing associated licenses. The Japanese giant will therefore not be able to decide alone from the fate of this technology, and other companies will be able to continue to produce Blu-ray.
But since it was undoubtedly its main patron, and that the other heavy goods vehicles in the sector also abandon the ship (LG also abandoned the Blu-ray in December 2024), This does not bode well for the future of this particular technology … and even commercial physical storage supports in general. For example, it is very likely that the next editions of the PlayStation de Sony will be entirely devoid of optical disc reader.
We are indeed heading towards the end of an era, with all that that implies for collectors and, more broadly, for all those who wish to maintain a vague feeling of property of their digital products.
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