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.

Blu-ray discs have been part of the digital media landscape for almost 20 years, but fewer and fewer people have optical drives to use them. As such, Sony doesn't see the need to keep pumping out recordable Blu-rays.

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.

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.

Sony has announced that it will cease production of Blu-ray discs next month. In a statement shared by the company, it announced that "Blu-ray disc media, recording mini discs, recording MD data, mini DV cassettes" will all get the axe in February, confirming towards the end of the announcement that "there will be no successor models".

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,