Streaming
Crunchyroll absorbs Funimation, removes all its content, and doubles its price as well
Crunchyroll absorbs Funimation, but removes all content purchased there by users who paid for it. It is also raising the price of its subscription.
Changes are coming to Crunchyroll, the Sony-owned digital platform dedicated to anime. The aggregator of Japanese anime content will merge with Funimation on April 2, 2024. As a result of the merger, all content that users have purchased from Funimation will no longer be available on Crunchyroll. In other words, any series or movies previously purchased on that service will simply disappear. For obvious reasons, fans are not happy and criticism has been very visible on social media.
Drastic changes at Crunchyroll: Subscription price increases by almost 100% and all content previously purchased from Funimation will be eliminated
In a press release and an email sent to all subscribers, Funimation announced the end of its services on April 2, 2024, as a result of its acquisition by Crunchyroll. Not only that, but all content users have purchased from Funimation will disappear forever because it is “incompatible” with Crunchyroll.
To add salt to the wound, Crunchyroll is raising the annual price from $54.95 to $99.99, nearly doubling the price. This annual subscription price increase will be implemented starting with the next billing cycle in 2025 for users who remain subscribed. As usual, many users of social media like X have shown their dissatisfaction and total rejection of the direction this anime platform is taking.
Funimation is an anime-focused streaming service that was born in 2016, and has operated primarily in English-speaking countries. It will have had a life cycle of eight years when it ceases operations in 2024. This platform has included in its catalog various anime series such as ‘Dragon Ball,’ ‘One Piece,’ ‘Yu Yu Hakusho,’ or ‘Assassination Classroom,’ among many others. On the other hand, Crunchyroll was created in 2006 and serves the whole world.
YouTuber EposVox, an authority in the world of technology and streaming, called for users to buy things they actually own, in reference to the increasingly hot debate between physical and digital. And he’s not wrong; what happened in this case is there for all to see. A legally purchased digital copy of a video game or movie can be unilaterally withdrawn by the seller in the event of a company merger or closure.
Other users of social network X simply refer to the move as “a joke”, implying that it did not sit well with them.
Only time will tell if these controversial management decisions will end up affecting Crunchyroll financially, for example in terms of users leaving the service. At the very least, it is having a negative impact on their reputation for the time being.