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, it naturally triggered a firestorm in the physical media community, not to mention dozens of scary headlines about—once again—the imminent death of Blu-ray discs.
The last time funeral bells tolled this loudly for Blu-ray, it was because Best Buy had announced it was pulling the discs from its stores, leaving physical media fans to scrounge the shelves at Barnes & Noble…or, you know, simply order our discs online at Amazon or plenty of other outlets.
Well, Blu-ray (both standard and the UHD variety) survived the Best Buy debacle–albeit in a niche capacity, somewhat akin to vinyl–and from what some industry experts are saying, it will live through this latest Sony brouhaha, too.