If you’re after a physical, standalone Sony 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player, you might have to move quickly, with reports Sony is backing away from making them. At a point where sales of physical film media, especially the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format, are having something of a resurgence, Sony appears to be ceasing production ... Sony reportedly backs out of making 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray players
If you’re after a physical, standalone Sony 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player, you might have to move quickly, with reports Sony is backing away from making them.
At a point where sales of physical film media, especially the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format, are having something of a resurgence, Sony appears to be ceasing production of its standalone 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc player.
Sony’s unit, the UBP-X700/K, is the last one standing from the company, but reports from Japan suggest that not only is it going out of stock, but that Sony has no plans to replenish supplies of it either.
This follows Sony’s broader indication that its upcoming PlayStation 6 games console will be moving away from disc-based media too, and the company’s announcement that it’ll cease making games on disc from the start of 2028.
What’s odd in the case of Sony and the UBP-X700/K is that this is effectively Sony’s format, and now it’s going to be up to others to carry it through. Panasonic is now the only one of the major name consumer electronics manufacturers that’s still actively making 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc players, although there are a bunch of other companies out there picking up the mantle too.
There’s been no official announcement from Sony, just that stocks in Japan have gone dry, and a report popping up from an official Sony retailer that’s passed the news on. And as you can see from Sony’s Japanese website, stock of the player has run out.
This doesn’t mean that the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray market is dead or dying. Far from it, in fact. The PlayStation 5 games console for a start is doing a very good job of playing the discs, and there are standalone players actively available on the market.
As better people than me have pointed out, instead it’s part of Sony’s continued, slow push away from making certain physical hardware, and instead concentrating on making the products that play on said devices instead.
Stocks remain available in the UK – it’s listed on Amazon this morning, right here – but the suspicion is that they’re going to be declining. The fear beyond that is that the price of those left behind will push up.
More as we hear it.
