Sony appears to have no interest in physical media. Just months after announcing the end of physical disc production for PlayStation consoles, the electronics giant is reportedly winding down a key part of its dedicated high-end Blu-ray player business.
According to a report from FlatPanelsHD, the Japanese blog Kunkoku claims the company is discontinuing its last remaining UHD Blu-ray player in Japan, the UBP-X700/K. With the move, the PlayStation 5 will become Sony’s only 4K Blu-ray player in the country. While Sony hasn’t delivered an official press release regarding the matter, its online store lists the UBP-X700/K as “Out of stock. This item will not be restocked.”
The UBP-X700/K was released in May 2025 and became Sony’s last stand-alone UHD Blu-ray player after the UBP-X800M2 was discontinued more than a year ago. While the disc edition of the PlayStation 5 can play UHD Blu-ray discs, the console doesn’t support Dolby Vision (which improves HDR video). Sony will continue to sell one standard Blu-ray player and one model of DVD player.
Sony hasn’t announced whether it will stop selling the UBP-X700/K in other regions, but its decisions in Japan generally precede changes elsewhere, meaning the hardware will almost certainly be discontinued worldwide. Once Sony stops selling the player, Panasonic will become the only major electronics brand still selling UHD Blu-ray players.
Ongoing controversy over Sony ditching physical media
The news of Sony abandoning 4K Blu-ray players comes a few months after the company announced that starting in 2028, it will stop producing physical discs for PlayStation. To put it mildly, the announcement was not well received, and virtually all of PlayStation’s social media posts were filled with angry comments decrying the move.
For many, the issue comes down to media ownership. Generally, when you “purchase” digital media, you don’t own it the same way you do with a physical disc. In most cases, buying a game or movie digitally means you’re actually purchasing a license to access that content, not the media itself. For instance, Sony is in the middle of a lawsuit to prove in court that players don’t own their digital games.
In June, Sony removed over 500 films from users’ PlayStation accounts, including Terminator 2, after a deal with rights holder StudioCanal expired. Game companies regularly take down old digital marketplaces, making it impossible to legally download games exclusive to those stores. If that wasn’t enough, Sony recently changed its Crunchyroll Store, which sells physical anime Blu-rays, so only subscribers with high membership tiers can make purchases.
As media companies push users toward streaming and digital purchases, physical media is unfortunately becoming a niche space for hobbyists and collectors. Sony’s impending discontinuation of its 4K Blu-ray players is just the latest nail in the coffin.
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