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.

This marks the end of an 18-year journey for the company after Blu-ray became commercially available to the masses in 2006. It follows a decision to end production of recordable B

Sony will cease production of various physical media in February. These include Blu-ray recordable disks, MiniDV minicassettes, and others. Sony also

Sony recently announced plans to end Blu-ray media production in February, delivering yet another heavy blow to the future of physical media. The company will also

It's another sore day for physical media fans. After an 18-year run, the media giant is leaving the Blu-ray game.

Sony, one of the biggest proponents of the Blu-ray format, announced that it is ending production of all Blu-ray disc media. Same goes for MiniDiscs for recording, MD data for recording, and MiniDV cassettes.

Globally, the writing is on the wall for the trusty disc. Sales of DVDs has continued on a steep decline over the years; Best Buy has stopped stocking DVDs; and Redbox machines are now just worth their value in scrap metal. In gaming, of course, companies including Microsoft are pushing hard on streaming gameplay over the internet.

Fans of physical media—myself included—tend to be a morbid bunch, dwelling on the rise of streaming while bemoaning the steady decline of Blu-ray, the home-media format of choice for cinephiles. So when word came down that Sony will exit the recordable Blu-ray market next month,