- Sony is already in the process of relocating its Austrian disc manufacturing plant
- It is the only physical Sony media factory left
- Existing staff will be retained to work with micro-optics
We’re still reeling from Sony’s announcement earlier this week that it will stop releasing PlayStation games on physical discs from the start of 2028 – and now there’s news that Sony’s last remaining physical media factory is already being recycled.
According to ORF Salzburg (via The Verge and Google Translate), production at the Austrian plant will drop to about 10% of its current level by 2028. The plant currently makes 600,000 blank Blu-rays every day (half of which are used for PlayStation games), and Sony has made about 26.4 billion discs in total across its sites.
However, the existing 300 employees will be retained, according to Dietmar Tanzer, CEO of Sony DADC (Digital Audio Disc Corporation). They will be retrained in micro-optics – squeezing optical components into the smallest possible spaces.
Instead of discs, the facility’s assembly line will instead produce optical microlenses. One of the uses of these elements mentioned in the report is for projecting car turn signals onto the street surface, but there are a host of potential uses.
‘We own nothing now’
The report also quotes Markus Streibl, head of Micro Optics at Sony DADC, who says the company recently invested €30 million (approx. $34 million / £26 million / AU$49 million) in the technology as it looks to develop this part of its business.
As seen by The Verge, there is evidence that the factory in Austria has been making microlenses since at least as far back as 2024. These small components are actually produced on disks, so there will be some crossover in terms of equipment and processes.
While Sony seems on the surface to be ready to move on and look to the future, many of us are having a less easy time moving on: gamers are vowing to leave the PlayStation platform due to concerns about what these mean for game ownership (“we literally own nothing now” was one disgruntled user’s comment).
The news has dampened some of the excitement surrounding the opening of GTA 6 pre-orders, and it also means that the PlayStation 6 is highly unlikely to have a disc drive built in. Sony has also announced the closure of the PS3 and Vita stores at the same time.
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