Verbatim and I-O Data have pledged to continue to support the recordable optical media market. In a press release on Verbatim's Japanese site, the storage brand wrote (machine translation) that it "will respond to the trust of customers through stable supply of optical disks in the Japanese market and continuing sales." It also signaled that this statement had been precipitated by worried customers hearing about the withdrawal of other major manufacturers.
It is evident that Verbatim was stirred into making its reassurances after Sony's recent public withdrawal from the recordable Blu-ray, MiniDiscs for recording, MD data for recording, and MiniDV cassette markets. Sony will shutter its last Japanese facility where it manufactured these data storage media sometime this month. It had already stopped supplying recordable Blu-rays to consumers last summer, and it has now drawn a line under commercial supplies with the factory closure.
In its press release, Verbatim said that the stable supply of high-quality optical recordables to Japanese customers is "a top priority." It recognizes that the market is now at a major turning point with other suppliers pulling out, but repeated several times that it will continue to provide these once hugely popular optical discs to the Japanese market. This Japanese language PR highlights that particular geographic market, but it does mention the global scale of Verbatim's operations at least once.
Scooting over to the Verbatim North America site, we don't see any news releases that would worry us with regard to recordable optical supplies dwindling. Rather, we see the company proudly declare that it is "the No. 1 Optical Brand in the World." It also maintains a comprehensive ranges of many product lines, so you can buy CD-R discs in five colors, with inkjet labels, or finished to look like vinyl records, for example.
Another encouraging sign for optical disc devotees is that Verbatim has recently launched new optical disc reading/writing hardware. A new Verbatim branded Slimline Blu-ray Writer was showcased at CES 2025, and it is described as "a 4K writer equipped with Ultra HD Blu-ray playback and powered by a USB cable." Pangs of nostalgia were felt when we read that the drive comes bundled with 'Nero' software and is compatible with PC systems packing an "Intel Pentium III / AMD Duron 900 MHz or higher."
