Sony’s PlayStation – Sony has already put €30 million ($34 million) into converting its Austrian PlayStation disc factory in Thalgau, Salzburg into a plant for optical microlenses. The transition is tied to Sony’s plan to make PlayStation games fully digital starting in January 20
The first thing workers in Thalgau, Salzburg had to grasp wasn’t a shutdown notice. It was a new job description.
Sony’s Digital Audio Disc Corporation has already invested €30 million ($34 million) into converting its disc factory in Thalgau into a facility for optical microlenses. management told local workers on July 1. Austria’s ORF Salzburg reported. The timing mattered because Sony had also announced that PlayStation would go all-in on digital starting in January 2028.
Optical microlenses—tiny components that manipulate light—are commonly used in camera sensors, AR/VR headsets, fiber optic networks and medical devices. For the Thalgau site, it means a future that is less about spinning discs and more about manufacturing precision optics.
Right now, the factory is still busy making discs. It currently manufactures 600,000 discs every day, and half of that volume goes to PlayStation games. Sony DADC CEO Dietmar Tanzer expects that disc production will fall to 10 percent of the plant’s current output in 2028.
That projected drop is where the human side comes into focus. Tanzer said Sony intends to retain the 300 employees currently working at the Thalgau plant. Those workers will be retrained for optical microlens production. with Sony aiming to begin manufacturing the new product line as soon as next year.
Thalgau isn’t the only chapter in Sony DADC’s disc history. The company previously ran a mass manufacturing facility in Terre Haute, Indiana, where it made 23 billion discs from 1983 until it closed in 2022. Since that closure, DADC has manufactured 3.4 billion additional discs.
Now. with PlayStation’s digital push set for January 2028 and disc output expected to shrink sharply. the Thalgau factory’s transformation is no longer a background plan—it’s becoming a timetable. July 1 is when the workers were told. Next year is when production is expected to start. And by 2028, discs are meant to be a small fraction of what the plant produces.
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