EN
The production of game discs will decrease sharply
The president of the Sony DADC division, Dietmar Tanzer, said that the company's plant in Austria currently produces about 600,000 optical discs per day. About half of this volume comes from games for PlayStation consoles.
However, according to the company's forecasts, by 2028 the production of discs will decrease to only 10% of the current level, which effectively means the end of the era of physical media for video games.
Workers are being retrained for new production
In connection with the change in the production strategy, Sony plans to completely retrain about 300 employees of the Austrian enterprise.
In the future, they will work on the manufacture of optical microlenses, high-tech components used in modern electronics, the automotive industry, and augmented and virtual reality devices.
The transition to new technologies began last year
The change in the direction of the company's work did not come as a surprise. At the end of 2024, the Thalgau plant has already started preparations for the production of microlenses.
According to Austrian mass media, Sony invested about 30 million euros in this project. The launch of full-scale serial production of new products is planned for next year.
Automakers can become new customers
Optical microlenses of the new generation are used in a wide range of modern technologies. They are necessary for augmented and virtual reality headsets, high-precision optical systems, as well as automotive electronics.
It is expected that global automobile concerns will become one of the main customers of Sony's new products after the transformation of production is completed.
Sony is gradually abandoning the production of discs
The company has been optimizing its production facilities for several years. Sony's New Jersey disc plant was closed back in 2011, and production from Indiana was moved to Austria in 2022. Currently, the former American enterprise works for the automotive industry.
The transition to new technologies reflects a general trend in the gaming industry, where digital game downloads are increasingly displacing physical media. At the same time, Sony continues to develop its PlayStation ecosystem, including recently introducing the updated PlayStation 5 Pro console with improved performance and support for modern graphics technologies.