CONFIRMED
Sony has reportedly stopped selling its last standalone 4K Blu-ray player in Japan, the UBP-X700/K. If accurate, disc-drive PS5 models are now Sony’s only 4K Blu-ray hardware in that market. The report comes from a Japanese retailer blog, not Sony, and arrives months after Sony confirmed that new PlayStation games will stop shipping on disc in 2028.
What we know
The firm news here is about games, not players. On July 1, 2026, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced on the PlayStation Blog that physical disc production for all new PlayStation games will end starting January 2028. Push Square and Engadget attributed the statement to Sid Shuman. Games released or scheduled before then are unaffected.
Engadget reports that new PlayStation games will be sold only digitally after that cutoff. It also reports that physical distribution made up about 3% of PlayStation revenue, though the timeframe it gives is simply “last year.”
Some coverage of the player story has overreached. T3’s headline framing that Sony has stopped making 4K Blu-ray players everywhere does not hold up.
TweakTown’s suggestion that the PS5 is the only 4K Blu-ray player on the market is also wrong. Panasonic still sells UHD Blu-ray players, according to Dark Horizons and Pocket-lint. And not every PS5 plays 4K discs. As Gadget Review notes, only models with an optical drive can.
What is rumored
Kunkoku, a niche Japanese Sony blog run by a Sony retailer, reports that Sony Japan ended shipments and sales of the UBP-X700/K on October 22, 2026. FlatpanelsHD picked it up, followed by TechPowerUp, Tom’s Hardware, TechSpot, Pocket-lint and others. Sony’s Japanese store reportedly lists the player as out of stock with no restock planned. PSX Online has not verified that listing independently, no Sony press release has surfaced, and Dark Horizons points out there is no global confirmation.
What Hi-Fi and Pocket-lint have speculated that Sony may be leaving the standalone 4K player market worldwide. That is an inference from one Japan-only report, and Gadget Review and Dark Horizons say no global discontinuation has been announced.
On PS6, earlier unnamed reporting mentioned by TechPowerUp and TweakTown suggests it could ship without a disc drive or with a detachable one. An analyst quoted by CBC called a disc-less PS6 “guaranteed.” TechPowerUp notes Sony has not confirmed either way.
What we don’t know yet
Sony has not commented on the UBP-X700/K report. It has also said nothing about whether PS5 4K Blu-ray playback or disc drive support will change. No date, policy or firmware change on that front has been announced.
We also do not know whether the US UBP-X700 or other regional models will follow, or what Sony plans for PS6 hardware.
What it means
For PS5 owners with a disc drive, nothing changes today. The console still plays 4K Blu-ray with HDR10, though TechPowerUp notes it lacks Dolby Vision support for discs.
The bigger picture is a steady pullback. Sony pulled the UBP-X800M2 about a year ago with no successor, ended its Japanese Blu-ray recorders in February, and has confirmed the end of new disc games from January 2028. A quiet player exit in Japan fits that pattern, even if it is not yet official.
Collectors should keep discs and disc-drive hardware in mind, but treat PS6 disc talk as rumor until Sony says otherwise.
