Funimation is shutting down — and taking your digital library with it::Funimation is shutting down on April 2nd, 2024. The service will automatically transfer subscribers to Crunchyroll, and legacy members will see a price increase.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The anime streaming service will start migrating existing subscribers to Crunchyroll — a move that will not only affect subscription prices, but will also wipe digital libraries.
We’ve reached out to Crunchyroll for more clarification about the new prices Funimation subscribers will have to pay but didn’t immediately hear back.
To make matters worse, Crunchyroll won’t support the digital copies redeemed through Funimation.
This promotion allowed users to redeem digital copies of a Funimation Blu-ray or DVD they purchased, giving them the ability them to store and view the show or movie through the streaming service.
The only reason why I kept Funimation was because I’m on a legacy $5.99 per month plan — making it the cheapest ad-free streaming service I have amid rising prices across the entire industry.
Sure, Funimation’s playback controls and UI aren’t all that great, but I’ll miss using the app to get my fill of nostalgia from Dragon Ball Z or to catch up with new episodes of My Hero Academia.
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They can’t take my hard drives…
knock on your door Open up! It’s Sony Data “Recovery” Division, you have 5 seconds to comply!
Lmao imagining Funimation execs browsing Lemmy looking for who to doxx
“GardenVarietyAnxiety implied that they have pirated content! Find their address and send an agent!”
Some poorly paid intern spends twenty hours combing through their Lemmy account, cross referencing information with other social media accounts with similar names, until they narrow GVA down to one person, send someone to take their hard drive, and find out that they’re all talk and they don’t actually torrent
You can transfer your watchlist and show progress to Crunchyroll, but the only thing that doesn’t transfer is digital purchases. I don’t think many people actually have purchased content, so most people aren’t losing anything.
Edit: dang man people hate this comment lol, I wasn’t trying to say it wasn’t a bad move. The less-than-most people who did purchase digital copies are getting screwed.
Edit 2: I didn’t really consider the digital copies that come with dvd and blu-ray purchases. The notice they sent me sounded like they didn’t have any of this implemented in crunchyroll. It smells like they are testing how much money they can save against how much revenue is lost from people leaving because of this before making any promises.
So the only thing you’re losing is the stuff you paid extra money for? Wow!
According to the article, the only things being removed are digital copies that were given free with a DVD or Blu-Ray purchase.
Not amazing (I would argue that Funimation should make all eligible digital copies downloadable before the service ends), but assuming customers have their original physical media, the loss is minor.
I think the point they were trying to get across, at least in the notice they sent me, is people are losing this because crunchyroll has no implementation for these digital copies. It wasn’t clear if they were going to add this feature to crunchyroll, but I bet they are waiting to see how much of a shitstorm it causes before determining if it’s worth the revenue loss of the people leaving.
Shit, I didn’t realize that people are actually losing digital purchases. That’s like the worst thing you can lose. I was wondering what everyone was upset since I didn’t read the article (sorry) until I saw your comment.
This is a really shitty move by them. I even say this as someone who likes Crunchyroll and has been using them for years.
Edit: Apparently it’s only free digital copies, not purchases, but it’s still shitty regardless.
“If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing.”
This just screams greed IMO.
Sony (Aniplex), the owner of Funimation (and new owner of Crunchyroll), who actually produced and holds the rights to most of Funimation’s library via their partnership with a Japan-based subsidiary, are choosing to revoke your access to your media.
Funny thing is they merged in 2021, not sure why it was an issue running the two separate sites until now.
Business as usual. You get rich enough to buy out a smaller company and then funnel all of those resources into one main company so that your management now oversees even more power. Who cares how disconnected you are from the community when you’re sleeping on a large stack of money every night.
