When you consider that Best Buy stopped selling physical media in 2024 and Target is about to pull the plug on DVDs and Blu-ray in 2025, Sony’s announcement over the weekend about the future of recordable Blu-ray discs is not really that surprising. Walmart and Amazon will be your best options going forward for those who are still committed to the physical format when it comes to movies.
In what seemed a fairly sudden move, Sony has announced that as of February 2025, it will no longer be manufacturing or distributing recordable Blu-ray Discs, MiniDiscs, MD Data discs, and MiniDV cassettes.
But after reaching out to Sony, it has become apparent that the hysteria might be rather misplaced. The keyword in that announcement was “recordable.”
Here is the announcement from Sony translated from Japanese:
“Thank you for your continued patronage of Sony products. We will end production of all models of Blu-ray Disc media, MiniDiscs for recording, MD data for recording, and MiniDV cassettes as of February 2025. There will be no successor models. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to our many customers for their patronage to date.“
As a result of Sony’s initial announcement, the internet has been abuzz with conclusions that the Blu-ray Disc format is ending. However, there is more to the story as a follow-up statement issued by Sony provides some additional clarification: “In Japan, we have a unique culture of recording TV programs in the Blu-ray disc and we sell blank storage Blu-ray discs for this use only in Japan. The subject of this notification is these discs.”
What This Really Means
Reading both the initial announcement and follow-up clarification from Sony, this is not as dire as it seems. What Sony is referencing is that in Japan (and possibly other select markets), after the Blu-ray Disc format was established in 2006, Sony and other select brands also introduced Blu-ray Disc recorders for the purpose of recording TV shows and other related content for personal preservation of high-definition content on physical media. BD-R was also briefly popular as a data archiving format but as HDD and SSD drive capacities have increased and prices have plummeted, BD-R lost its appeal for data storage.
Due to restrictions imposed by movie studios and other content providers for the North American market, consumer Blu-ray Disc recorders were not made available for public use. The studios and its accountants didn’t want consumers to have the ability to make perfect digital copies of copyrighted content that could end up being sold on an unauthorized basis. As a result, unlike Japan, the only available Blu-ray Disc recording options for North America were via professional recording units that did not provide built-in HDTV tuners or HDMI inputs or via PC Blu-ray Disc writers.
What this means is that Sony’s announcement has a very limited impact on those in the North American market, but there may still be far-reaching implications regarding the state of physical media for video playback.
Looking Back
Believe it or not, Blu-ray has been with us for eighteen years. Debuting in 2006, Blu-ray was intended to replace DVD as it offers playback of Full HD video, whereas DVD is a standard definition format that only supports up to 480i/p Standard Definition resolution.
Even with the increased presence of streaming, physical media (Blu-ray, DVD, Vinyl Records, CDs, etc…) remained more popular in Japan than in many other markets. However, that trend is now subsiding, and with reduced demand for physical media home recording, Sony has made the decision to end recordable disc products.
Sony isn’t the only maker of recordable Blu-ray discs, but since they are the dominant player, others still in that business will probably take notice – there may be a slight initial surge in demand as affected consumers “stock up” – but after the dust settles, recordable Blu-ray discs will likely disappear not only in the Japanese market but worldwide.
Panasonic and Verbatim will be your main options going forward.
Current State of the Blu-ray Disc Player Market
Currently, there are two Blu-ray Disc formats in use, Blu-ray (aka Full HD Blu-ray) and Ultra HD Blu-ray (aka 4K Blu-ray). However, there are only a few companies left making players with Sony and Panasonic being the two major companies still offering both standard Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray Disc players. Lesser known brands Reavon and Magnetar continue to release new models and R_volution provides Disc playback – and even disc ripping – on some of its 4K and 8K Media Players. Audio/videophiles were sad to see venerable OPPO Digital stop making their universal disc players players in 2018 (although they still provide limited support for their existing products).
Demand for new titles on Blu-ray Disc and UHD Blu-ray fell by almost 25% in 2024 and specialist labels like the Criterion Collection will never sell enough copies of their excellent restorations of classic films to really make the format viable.
It might be time to start stocking up on your favorite films before they become available online only as a streaming purchase or rental, or a digital download on platforms such as Kaleidescape.
Should Amazon and Walmart pull the plug on Blu-ray movies, there will be no incentive for hardware manufacturers to offer new models.
While the BD-R announcement isn’t really newsworthy for those who are not using the recording function of Blu-ray Disc, it is one more nail in the coffin for movies on physical media. But it’s by no means an impending sign of the death of physical media as a whole.
This is a continuing story, and more news on this topic will be released, and eCoustics will cover it.
Key Points in the Blu-ray Timeline
- 2024: Redbox is Done and the Fat Lady is About to Sing for Physical Media
- 2023: Disney Ends DVD and Blu-ray Releases Down Under
- 2018: OPPO Throws In The Towel
- 2011: Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray Breaks Sales Records
- 2009: 3D Blu-ray Discs in the Works
- 2009: Blu-ray Disc Product Licensing Program Announced
- 2009: TAD Demonstrates Music-only Blu-ray Disc Format
- 2008: Blu-ray Recorder Sales Hit Record Levels (in Japan)
- 2008: Blu-ray Triumphs, HD-DVD R.I.P.
- 2006: Blu-ray Disc Ushers in New Era of Entertainment
- 2006: Blu-ray Disc Format Specifications Completed
The Bottom Line
Blu-ray is not going away just yet as pre-recorded Blu-ray Disc movies and content distributed by movie studios and independent creators are not directly affected by Sony’s announcement. But let’s face it, as streaming continues to dominate, the writing is on the wall, at least for video media.
Check out more of our coverage of Blu-ray.
