Sony to retrain disc workers as PlayStation disc production drops

Sony plans to retrain all 300 employees at its Thalgau plant for optical microlenses as PlayStation disc production at the site drops sharply, a signal that the company’s physical-game business is being reworked, not just trimmed. Dietmar Tanzer, who leads Sony DADC’s discmaking operations, said the Salzburg-area factory still turns out 600,000 discs a day, about half of them for PlayStation, but that output will fall to about 10% of that level by 2028.

The shift lands at a site that has long been central to Sony’s physical-media business. Sony DADC says its Salzburg-area operation was established in 1987 in Anif, while the Thalgau plant opened in 1991. The company describes Thalgau as its headquarters and biggest production site, and says it has manufactured billions of physical discs there over the years. Its chamber-of-commerce listing says the plant produces more than 100 million storage media items a year, including CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays and UHD discs, with new PlayStation games making up about 10% of total disc production.

Sony has already been consolidating that footprint. ORF Salzburg reported in 2021 that the company brought its Austrian operations together in Thalgau, leaving it as the only Sony operating site in the province. A year later, the broadcaster said Sony moved disc and gaming production from Terre Haute, Indiana, to Thalgau, a shift that cost about 100 U.S. workers their jobs. The latest retraining plan suggests the Austrian factory is now being prepared for a different kind of manufacturing altogether.

That matters beyond one plant in Salzburg. The continued decline of disc output narrows the role of physical media in game ownership, resale and preservation, especially for players who still depend on discs to avoid large downloads or patch-heavy installs. It also leaves fewer manufacturing options for rural customers and people with slower broadband, for whom a box with a disc still carries practical value that digital storefronts cannot replace.

Sony’s move into microlenses shows how quickly the economics have changed. A plant that once served games, video and music at scale is being redirected toward a new product line, while the old one contracts to a fraction of its former volume.