Asia Tech Wire (July 2) -- Sony has laid off 250 employees from its recordable media business and offered early retirement benefits to some of them, according to the Mainichi Shimbun.

The affected positions come from its main manufacturing center for its recordable media business in northeastern Japan, according to the report.

While not revealing much else on the matter, the report attributes the layoffs to declining consumer demand for traditional storage formats.

Sony may eventually plan to stop producing optical disc storage media products, including Blu-ray discs.