Following its recent declaration that PlayStation will transition to a digital-only ecosystem by January 2028, Sony has already initiated the physical dismantling of its optical disc infrastructure. According to a report by ORF Salzburg, the regional branch of Austria’s national broadcaster, Sony’s Digital Audio Disc Corporation (DADC) management has quietly invested €30 million ($34 million) to convert its historic disc manufacturing facility in Thalgau, Salzburg, into a high-tech plant for optical microlenses.
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While the engineering overhaul has been planned behind the scenes for a considerable period, management officially notified the facility’s workforce on July 1. The €30 million investment pivots the factory toward producing optical microlenses—microscopic structures that manipulate light. These specialized components are in high demand across rapidly expanding industries, serving as core hardware for:
- Next-generation smartphone camera sensors.
- Augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) headsets.
- High-speed fibre optic telecommunication networks.
- Advanced diagnostic medical devices.
The Thalgau facility currently manufactures 600,000 optical discs per day, with PlayStation gaming software accounting for exactly half of that total volume. However, Sony DADC CEO Dietmar Tanzer expects disc production to plummet to just 10 percent of current output capacity by the time the 2028 digital-only mandate takes effect.
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The Thalgau plant is not merely a regional factory; it serves as the global headquarters for Sony DADC. The division has been systematically winding down its physical footprint for years. DADC previously operated a massive mass-manufacturing facility in Terre Haute, Indiana, which pressed 23 billion discs between 1983 and its closure in 2022. Since the Indiana closure, the Austrian plant has handled the remaining global load, producing an additional 3.4 billion discs up to the present day.
Despite the radical shift in the facility’s core output, Sony intends to mitigate localized job losses. Tanzer confirmed to ORF that the company plans to retain all 300 employees currently working at the Thalgau complex. The existing workforce will undergo comprehensive retraining programs in the near future to transition from disc pressing to micro-optics fabrication, as Sony targets an aggressive timeline to begin localized microlens assembly as early as next year.
