- Buffalo reverses Blu-ray output decision after securing more components
- Customers face 33-51% price increases for remaining portable drives
- Production will eventually cease when the current component supply runs out
Japanese company Buffalo has reversed its decision to stop selling Blu-ray drives (via PC clock), announcing that it will continue to sell several notebook models after securing additional supplies of previously unavailable components.
This follows an earlier announcement in February 2026 that it would suspend sales of Blu-ray drives in July 2026 due to a shortage of components – not a lack of demand.
However, customers are set to pay a premium for Buffalo’s renewed sales due to persistent global semiconductor shortages, rising material costs and higher overall manufacturing costs.
Limited supply leads to violent price increases
For example, the BRXL-PTV6U3 model with writing software sees the biggest increase of 51%, from ¥16,940 ($104) to ¥25,630 ($158). Buffalo’s BRXL-PT6U3 model also sees a 44% price increase, and the BRXL-PTWOU3 increases in cost by 33%.
Additionally, even if the company continues to sell Blu-ray drives at a higher price to maintain supply relative to customer demand, production will only continue as long as the new components last, suggesting that Buffalo itself is facing major supply struggles.
No final end date has been shared due to the unpredictability of production volumes, shipping volumes and retail inventory levels, but once the parts are no longer available, production will cease and sales will likely cease permanently.
More broadly, it marks ongoing challenges in the industry, with Pioneer confirming it would pull out of the optical disc drive business in 2025. LG also stopped making new drives and Sony shipped its Blu-ray recorders to end users in Japan, implying a relatively strong market as other regions waned.
Some manufacturers are still holding out
But earlier this year, Verbatim Japan and IO Data publicly committed to continuing development of Blu-ray drives (via Tom’s hardware) even after major players left, arguing that demand remains strong for customers who need long-term offline storage, such as photographers and videographers, governments, businesses and archives.
“We have again recognized that the need to ‘record data I want to keep onto a disk I have at hand [sic]’ continues to exist, the two companies say in a joint statement.
However, optical storage faces competition from the generally more expensive but far more convenient rival that is cloud storage. Local storage via SSDs and HDDs is also often preferred by many.
Ultimately, despite continued demand in some markets in Japan, likely driven by anime consumption and a relatively strong but declining movie rental business, the Blu-ray market is no longer large enough to guarantee a stable supply of components. With news that Buffalo could also exit the market soon after a second wind, it could mark the end of the Blu-ray era.
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