Sony's disc factory in Austria is already converting to microlens production

Sony DADC's CEO Dietmar Tanzer has confirmed that the company's disc manufacturing facility in Thalgau, Austria is already being repurposed — months before Sony's formal July 1st announcement that it will stop producing physical PlayStation discs entirely by January 2028.

The Thalgau plant employs 300 workers and is being converted into a microlens production facility. According to Sony DADC's Head of Micro Optics, Markus Streibl, the pivot was already in motion before Sony went public — the factory received a 30 million euro (roughly $34 million) investment in optical microlens production prior to the announcement. Some workers have already been pulled from disc production to take part in microlens test operations. Tanzer told ORF Salzburg that Sony wants to keep headcount as close to 300 as possible, but stopped short of guaranteeing any jobs.

Sony's decision to exit physical media entirely by 2028 covers both first-party and third-party PlayStation titles — a sweeping move that signals the company is done hedging on the all-digital future it has been nudging players toward for years. The PlayStation 5 Digital Edition and the slimmer PS5 models have steadily pushed that direction, and the upcoming PlayStation 5 Pro launched without a disc drive by default.

The Thalgau conversion looks like just the opening move. Streibl indicated Sony DADC is planning mass microlens production across the company as early as 2027, which strongly suggests the rest of Sony's disc manufacturing network is next in line for the same treatment. For the 300 workers in Austria, the retraining is underway — but whether all of them make it through the transition remains an open question.