Sony Refuses To Confirm 4K Blu-Ray Player Withdrawal

Rumors have been circulating in recent days suggesting that Sony is departing the 4K Blu-ray player world. According to reports initially out of Japan, the brand's only remaining stand-alone 4K Blu-ray player on the market, the UBP-X700K, is showing up in Japanese retailers as no longer available, with those retailers also apparently being told by Sony not to expect any new stock to be forthcoming.

In more recent days, the X700K has also appeared alongside an 'Out Of Stock' message on Sony's U.S. website.

Sony has not, however, formally announced that it is pulling out of the 4K Blu-ray player market.

In fact, when I asked Sony's U.K. operation if it could confirm whether or not its 4K Blu-ray player days were over, I got the following reply: "This information has not been publicly announced by Sony. We are aware of the recent media reports, but prefer to refrain from commenting on speculation."

Obviously this is hardly a definitive signal that Sony maybe does have future 4K Blu-ray plans after all. It's entirely possible that its reluctance to confirm an end to its support for the best (and likely last) physical media video format could be down to it just wanting to control the narrative of such a negative move at a time and in a manner of its choosing. Or Sony may simply not want to deter potential buyers of its remaining UBP-X700K stocks (it still seems readily available from multiple retailers in the U.S. and U.K. at the time of writing, despite the recent Out Of Stock status on Sony's own U.S. store). But Sony U.K.'s official comment isn't an absolutely definite "that's all she wrote" either.

Of course, the direction of travel where Sony and physical media is concerned isn't exactly promising. The brand recently announced that it would no longer be releasing PlayStation 5 games on disc, moving to an all-digital console platform. And while the PlayStation 5 can sill be bought with a 4K Blu-ray player installed, there's no confirmation that a disc player will be available for the next PlayStation generation.

The fortunes of the X700K may also have been affected by the recent major shift in Sony's AV approach that's seen its TV division spin its operations off into a new joint Bravia Inc venture with TCL. Maintaining a single disc-based product in a home entertainment range undergoing such massive production upheavals might just no longer make financial or practical sense.

If the X700K's apparent gradual withdrawal from stores across the world does indeed eventually prove to be the end of Sony's 4K Blu-ray player days, it will be sorely missed. For while the X700K's operating system looks dated, its picture quality is outstanding, especially for a player that can be bought for as little as $329.99 and £269 in the U.S. and U.K. respectively. Its ability to play Super Audio CDs has also long been appreciated by die-hards of the hi-fi physical media world.

It's worth remembering, too, that Sony released an updated version of its 2018-launched player as recently as last year – hardly the actions of a brand that was about to pull the plug on a player that had at that point been around for seven years. At the same time, though, perhaps tellingly, that 2025 updated X700K actually mostly removed features available on the original X700 rather than significantly moving the player forward.

Overall the omens for Sony continuing in the 4K Blu-ray world with some new X700 replacement are about as far from promising as it's possible to get. With 4K Blu-ray players already in painfully short supply, however, I for one refuse to give up absolutely all hope of a future Sony 4K Blu-ray player until someone at the brand officially declares it otherwise.

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This article was originally published on Forbes.com