End of an era — the historic PlayStation factory that manufactured 24 billion gaming discs is already being turned into a micro-optics lab, just days after Sony announced its digital push

• Sony is already repurposing its Austrian disc-making factory
• It’s the only physical media plant of Sony’s that’s left
• Existing staff will be retained to work with micro optics

We’re still reeling from Sony’s announcement earlier this week that it will stop releasing PlayStation games on physical discs from the start of 2028 — and now there’s news that Sony‘s last remaining physical media factory is already being repurposed.

According to ORF Salzburg (via The Verge and Google Translate), production at the Austrian plant is going to drop to around 10% of its current levels by 2028. The factory currently makes 600,000 blank Blu-rays every day (half of which are used for PlayStation games), and Sony has made some 26.4 billion discs in total across its sites.

The existing 300 staff are going to be kept on though, as per Dietmar Tanzer, CEO of Sony DADC (Digital Audio Disc Corporation). They’ll be retrained in micro optics — squeezing optical components into the smallest spaces possible.

Instead of discs, the plant’s assembly lines will be producing optical microlenses instead. One of the uses of these elements mentioned in the report is for projecting car turning signals on to the street surface, but there are a multitude of potential applications.

‘We own nothing now’

The report also quotes Markus Streibl, head of Micro Optics at Sony DADC, who says that the company recently invested €30 million (about $34 million / £26 million / AU$49 million) in the tech as it looks to develop this part of its business.

As spotted by The Verge, there’s evidence that the plant in Austria has been making microlenses since at least as far back as 2024. These small components are actually produced on discs, so there’ll be some crossover in terms of equipment and processes.

While Sony seems immediately ready to move on and look to the future, many of us are having a less easy time moving on: gamers are promising to quit the PlayStation platform over concerns about what these means for game ownership (“we literally own nothing now” was a comment left by one disgruntled user).

The news has tempered some of the excitement around the opening up of GTA 6 pre-orders, and it also means the PlayStation 6 is highly unlikely to have a disc drive built in. Sony has also announced the closure of the PS3 and Vita stores at the same time.

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Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you’ll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.