News article on the Opal page - "some" tickets will be phased out from September 1 - aka, pretty much everything!
Hope you're happy with your Opal card!
Tickets purchased before, can still be used up till their expiry, eg 1 year ticket purchased August 31st 2014 could be used till 2015.
Looks like Bus Travel Tens have been spared at this stage (thought I saw a different article which listed which ones remained, but can't see it now). If so, that's good as that's one area Opal is a worse-off for me. Travel 10 1-2 zone @ $18.40 = $1.84 per trip, but Opal is $2.10.
Also, it mentions that they will be rolling out selling Opal cards at retailers and pop-up kiosks at stations (about time). Not specified if there will be a cost to get the card or have to register them. May or may not appease all those tin-foil hat conspiracy theorists.
You might be interested in this article http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/opal-takeup-rate-soars-20140522-38…
or other discussion from here - https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/144862
Side note - saw a ticket blitz on North Shore train line last week with Transit Officers blocking the exits (no actual gates at stations), and it looks like they might have had hand held Opal readers (looked a bit like a metal detector, didn't see it in use) Also, got asked to show ticket to roving cops this morning on the train. He didn't have anything to check, just said "ok"
Link to the official ozbargain outrage thread