There was a time when Blu-ray discs reigned supreme, but the era of physical media now firmly exists in the shadow of digital streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime. But over 18 years after its worldwide debut, one of the biggest companies that oversaw Blu-ray’s development announced a milestone phaseout: As of February 2025, Sony will no longer manufacture blank, recordable Blu-ray discs in Japan.
Sony’s three-sentence press release confirmed similar death dates for its blank MiniDisc, MD data, and MiniDV cassettes. The company also made it clear that you shouldn’t expect any “successor models” to these formats from them.
“We would like to express our sincere gratitude to our many customers for their patronage to date,” Sony wrote last week.
[ Related: Why you shouldn’t throw out those DVDs and Blu-rays ]
Blu-ray discs are read using a 405 nanometer laser diode that, while often referred to as “blue,” technically falls in a shorter, violet wavelength. This laser is focused enough to read bits of information that are less-than-half the size of those in a DVD. A traditional Blu-ray disc holds about five times as much data as a standard DVD, allowing for much higher-definition video files. Blu-ray industry specifications also require mechanical abrasion tests to ensure they are more scratch-resistent, unlike DVDs.
The Sony-led, multicompany collaborative effort to develop DVD’s successor dates back to 1998, although it would be years before its creators released the Blu-ray white paper in 2004. The first seven movies to arrive on Blu-ray Disc were released on June 20, 2006, and included titles like 50 First Dates, The Fifth Element, Underworld: Evolution, and The Terminator. By June 2008, however, around 3,500 films and shows were available on Blu-ray in the US and Canada. Despite brief competition from the HD DVD format, Blu-ray became the de facto physical media choice by 2008, thanks in large part due to video game consoles like the PlayStation 3’s reliance on Blu-ray technology for its larger-file releases.
But as Gizmodo noted over the weekend, Sony’s blank Blu-ray retirement plan is more of a symbolic moment for the industry than a final nail in the coffin. Plenty of recordable Blu-ray discs are still available from other companies, and there are still many reasons to keep buying Blu-ray shows and movies. While streaming services remain the more preferred option, their increasing subscription costs, rotating collections, and often reduced quality has many people still regularly opting to watch on Blu-ray.
Streaming subscriptions offer convenience, but at both literal and figurative costs. With regularly rising monthly rates, shelling out for multiple services can quickly become more expensive than purchasing physical versions of your favorite titles. And because you don’t “own” any of a streaming site’s content, keeping a Blu-ray library ensures you’ll always have access to the movies you want, regardless of what is or isn’t on any given platform. It’s ultimately a matter of personal choice, but given that Blu-ray players cost considerably less than Sony’s very first, $3,800 model, it’s a decent investment to consider.
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