The video game disc is dying. Sony’s been planning the funeral for a while. Now the factory floor is getting repurposed.
Sony DADC president Dietmar Tanzer told ORF Salzberg that the Thalgau plant in Austria cranks out 600,000 discs a day. Half of those are PlayStation games. But by 2028, that number will drop to just 10%. So Sony is doing something smart — retraining all 300 employees to manufacture optical microlenses instead.
Thalgau isn’t just another plant. It’s the headquarters of Sony’s disc-making division and its last wholly owned disc facility. Sony closed its US plants years ago — Terre Haute, Indiana moved all production to Thalgau back in 2022. That Indiana facility now helps automakers package headlights.
Sony’s invested €30 million in the microlens pivot. Mass production could start “as early as next year.” Microlenses have all kinds of applications — headsets, displays, even car turn signals projected onto asphalt.
This wasn’t a snap decision. A behind-the-scenes video from December 2024 already showed the Thalgau plant working on lenses. Sony’s been winding down disc production for decades. They’ve made 26.4 billion discs to date — 23 billion of those from Terre Haute alone between 1983 and 2022.
Physical media isn’t dead yet, but it’s on life support. Sony’s just pulling the plug on their end and moving on to what’s next.
