GoKawiilIn brief: At a time when physical media seems to be going the way of the VCRs and dial-up modems, there is a bit of good news from Japan – with caveats. Japanese peripherals maker Buffalo has walked back its decision to stop selling Blu-ray drives after securing the additional components it needed. The less welcome news is that they will be up to 51% more expensive, which seems to be the norm these days, and manufacturing will end once the supply runs dry.
Buffalo announced in February that the three portable USB-connected Blu-ray drives it makes would be withdrawn from sale in July – the memorably named BRXLPT6U3E, BRXLPTV63B, and BRXLPTWOU3 series. It added that there would be no successor models.
While some companies have left the Blu-ray market because of falling demand, Buffalo's decision was later revealed to be a sadly familiar one: the memory crisis pushing up material prices.
The cost of the more expensive components is being passed on to consumers. The biggest hike hits the BRXL-PTV6U3 series, which will see all four products increase by 51.3%. The BRXL-PT6U3 goes up by 44%, while the BRXL-PTWOU3 gets a 33% hike.
Sadly, despite presumably covering the extra component costs by charging more for the drives, Buffalo will only manufacture the Blu-ray drives while the current supply of components lasts. Once those components run out, sales will continue only until remaining stock is depleted. That means there is no final end date for the products, since production volumes and retail inventory are unpredictable.
While a lot of attention has been on Sony's decision to stop making new PlayStation games from 2028, the company had already exited the recordable Blu-ray market in February. Samsung, meanwhile, stopped making Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray players around 2019. LG, which at the time was one of the few remaining big-name manufacturers, discontinued production of Blu-ray players in 2024.
But Blu-ray continues to experience high demand in areas such as Japan, where physical anime collections and movie rentals are big business. In April, Verbatim and I-O Data pledged their support with new drives and discs at a time when major manufacturers were leaving the industry. It seems, Blu-ray isn't dead, but with the added problem of component costs, it's certainly struggling.