The younger ones won’t remember it, but between the middle and the end of the first decade of this century we live in a fierce confrontation between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, two optical media formats that competed to succeed the successful DVD. Between 2005 and 2008, both sides tried to prove that their format was the best, and it wasn’t until several studios switched to the Sony-backed format that Blu-ray was declared the winner of the showdown.

Even in those days, however, the future path of physical support began to be discussed, Fr if the winning format were to take over and even more so if it had a successor. Digital distribution has already started to make a significant impact in some markets such as music, Steam has been growing for several years and everything pointed to a medium-term horizon in which we will see important developments in this regard. And subscription services were yet to come.

In the 16 years since then, everything has changed, Digital distribution has taken many of these markets by storm.and the presence of optical support is increasingly a testimony. So last week we heard a rumor that the next Xbox could be all-digital, and some analysts pointed out that Sony might not go the same route with the next-gen, but the next. And now we have more reason than ever to think so.

As we can read in The Mainichi (in Japanese), Sony is set to make significant layoffs at its Blu-ray Disc manufacturing plant in Tagajo, Japan. His plans for the center, which has about 670 employees, include laying off 250 of them, plus early retirement incentives for most veterans. Depending on the number of workers who can benefit from these plans, added to those who will be laid off in any case, we are talking about a reduction that could be close to 50%.

During the current generation of Sony’s console, the distribution of games in physical format will continue to be one of the main markets for Blu-ray for it, but if Microsoft’s plans are confirmed and Sony decides to replicate those plans. future PlayStation and it’s still not out of the question at this point, it’s certain that we’ll see a new and massive notch in Blu-ray production. But even if it wasn’t, analysts are guessing 80% of PlayStation 5 games sold in 2024 will not have physical support.