Sony, the Japanese electronics giant that is partially known for developing the Blu-ray digital optical disc format, is cutting 250 jobs from its recordable media business, according to a new report from Japan’s The Mainichi that explains how the company will begin ceasing production of optical disc storage media products, including Blu-ray discs, as part of its latest business plans. Many, including proponents of physical media, have pointed out that this does not impact Blu-ray releases (e.g., games and movies) and strictly involves recordable media, such as BD-R, BD-RE, and BD-RE DL.
From a report:
- “Sony Group Corp. will cut around 250 jobs from its recordable media business’ key manufacturing hub in northeastern Japan and offer early retirement packages to its employees.”
- “The planned job cuts come amid a decline in demand for traditional storage formats such as Blu-ray discs, with streaming services now the norm.”
- “The manufacturing base in Tagajo, Miyagi Prefecture, currently has a workforce of around 670 people.”
- “The electronics and entertainment conglomerate will also gradually cease production of optical disc storage media products, including Blu-ray discs, according to the sources.”
A note from the @PhysicalMedia_ account:
Since they didn’t care enough to provide any context
— President Of Physical Media (@PhysicalMedia_) June 29, 2024
1) this doesn’t affect any Territories outside Japan
2) this is about CD-R, DVD-R, BD-R not pressed Disc
Physical media ain’t going anywhere
Sony on some of its existing Blu-ray Disc media:
Blu-ray Disc rewriteable media is identified with gold trim on the packaging and the BD-RE designation. Blu-ray Disc recordable (write once) media is identified with grey trim on the packaging and the BD-R designation. Currently, 50GB and 25GB capacity Blu-ray Disc media is available in both the BD-RE rewriteable and BD-R recordable formats. The 50GB capacity media are Dual Layer.
Discussion (2 replies)
Join Discussion →No more BD-R and BD-RE discs huh? I actually have a BD burner, but I have never ever burned a BD, because blank BDs are expensive as f*ck. And these aren't the days of CDs and DVDs, where we didn't have giant-@ss HDD or NASes, or large-capacity flash drives. Back then I and everyone I knew were storing all their sh1t on CDs and then DVDs. But that was a very long time ago. HDD price-per-GB and flash drive sizes + speeds over the last many years have eliminated the need for burning discs, which are also slow. Flash drives are a lot more durable than optical media too. Almost no one I know uses optical media of any kind anymore, especially for personal storage. Everyone has NASes, servers, big-@ss hard drives, and large flash drives.
At least blank CDs and DVDs got super-cheap back in the day. Blank BDs never ever got to the point where they were cost-effective, let alone cheap. I like physical media, but writable/rewritable BDs are all but useless in this day and age.
I've had a BD burner for roughly 15 years and didn't burn a single disc with it. 25GB or even DL 50GB was not much even by 2010 standards, especially considering that a blank disc was what €15-20? Writeable CDs on the other hand bottomed out at 30 cents if I recall correctly. But even at that price their capacity and lack of durability made them obsolete. I completely ditched optical media as even backups by 2010.