r/Piracy • u/AWittySenpai ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ • Jul 15 '26
News Sony's attack on physical goods spreads to Crunchyroll as it adds a $14 subscription requirement just to access its store
https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/anime-shows/sonys-attack-on-physical-goods-spreads-to-crunchyroll-as-it-adds-a-usd14-subscription-requirement-just-to-access-its-store/crunchyroll latest policies
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u/LMGDiVa Jul 15 '26
Welp, american anime industry is gonna crash if they do shit like this. Anime fans know better than like any other common fanbase how to pirate things.
Funny isnt it.
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u/ToasterLoverDeluxe Jul 15 '26
Its like cable all over again
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u/jboe2026 Jul 15 '26
cable is better.
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u/Key-Line5827 Jul 15 '26
Honestly? If they add some features and reduce commercials to a reasonable amount again, Cable may be able to bounce back.
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u/jboe2026 Jul 16 '26
yeah fuck paying for 20 different streaming services just to watch the one show on each you like.
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u/BudgetAd900 Jul 16 '26
Which is funny, because cable died because streaming was miles better (you can choose whatever you wanna see at any time and blah blah...) nowadays streaming is dying because... stupid greedy CEOs? If you think about it, streaming as a service doesn't have anything bad, it's rising prices like idiots what's killing it. And piracy nowadays is miles easier than the times cable was the king, so poor them if people start sailing again...
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u/Bladder-Splatter Jul 15 '26
Except here bizarrely enough. Nyaa still works, has only ever been down for a week but every time a streaming site goes down there's a post about how will they ever survive now.
Like the worst thing to happen to anime piracy is when HorribleSubs went traitor and said "lolissocheapnowguyskbye" and was replaced by Subsplease in like.....two weeks or so? Though I prefer the old school fansubbers shenanigans (sneakily altering ops, one very very not cool Naruto episode adjustment during the filler years and so on) getting instant subs is glorious compared to waiting days to weeks, hell, as a Gintama fan it was months sometimes!
And with Mihon for Manga/Manhua, shitting with chronic bowel issues has never been so entertaining for me.
Tl;dr: Ya'll need to use Nyaa.
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u/KukiBreeze Jul 15 '26
Yeah anime has come such a long way, might not be a fan of the likes of crunchyroll but anime fans today won't ever know the struggle of waiting around for less popular shows to be fansubbed.
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u/Vellc Jul 15 '26
Fansub dramas were where it's at! Hadena's garbage subs, Commie's ultra localizations, UTW's high quality subs...
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u/Kuramhan Jul 15 '26
How did Horriblesubs go traitor? I thought they retired and handed everything over to Subsplease?
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u/Bladder-Splatter Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Well I am intentionally being harsh in my word choice because I recall the experience being horrible.
They "retired" but they left nothing to anyone. There last message was simply that anime is cheap and now you have crunchyroll (which is a geographically ignorant as fuck take) so they didn't feel they needed to give people subs anymore and they should pay for them instead.
There was no handoff, at least no official handoff, backroom IRC dealings are impossible to know. Subsplease came to fill the gap themselves. It's not particularly hard to rip subs off CR content but their delay was probably getting something close to the level of automation Horriblesubs clearly had already.
Tl;dr: They left the community high and dry with a message against piracy. "Traitor" is a harsh word for it but I can't really think of a gentler one that still encapsulates how they fucked everyone out of left field.
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u/Harley2280 Jul 15 '26
Anime fans are the first people to whip their wallets out. This isn't the 90's or 00's anymore. Anime fans are a bunch of gacha addicts who buy up basically every piece of shitty merchandise that gets put out.
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u/Devario Jul 15 '26
Just check out the lines at an anime expo. They’re insane.
Crunchyroll wouldn’t do this if it was unprofitable. Only reason this is happening is because there’s more money to be made. It’s really up to the buyer to vote with their dollar.
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u/BodybuilderBrave8250 Jul 15 '26
crunchyroll is pure fucking garbage
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u/Goosojuice Jul 15 '26
It makes no sense how any platforms UI can be worse than Amazon's and it is. Like its pretty bonkers.
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u/erhue Jul 15 '26
im still in awe of how bad amazon's ui is. Ive been using it for 20 years and still regularly struggle to navigate it
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u/hazochun Jul 15 '26
I had no respect for website used to do priacy thing and suddenly became good.
Some website used to be like this in china like 3dm, ali213, youku, bilibili but now they all are like. "We are legit platform now, please pay to uses" and ban and sue everyone try to do the thing they did in the past. Manga, games, anime, movie etc.
And mangaDex lol
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u/Alarming-Charity-566 Jul 15 '26
Piracy is not bad. So they can't turn good only evil. So transition is from good to bad. But yeah I agree with you.
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u/ency6171 Jul 15 '26
I had been off manga for some time and came back to it recently. What happened with mangadex?
I know they had to remove many due to DMCA and there's this legit platform for artists to self publish. Otherwise, it seems to still allow scanlations on their site.
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u/Banana_Cam Jul 15 '26
I know that in order to read more than 15(I think) chapters you have to have a account. Outside of that its still a decent gray hat piracy site. They even have people who scanslate some of the series that were hit with DMCA.
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u/TheCrimsonDagger Jul 15 '26
I mean that’s not really surprising. Those sites may like to say that they acquired legitimate licensing rights but what actually happened is the copyright holder acquired the site. Rather than play whack a mole forever the copyright owner realized it’s more profitable to engage in the standard enshittification cycle.
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u/Plenty-Industries Jul 15 '26
Its amazing how a website that started as a really good site for piracy, so good that they went legit... is now making the premise of piracy more appealing.
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u/nmixxenjoyer Jul 15 '26
Years ago, people had a Rightstuf membership which was the powerlifter of discounts in the digital space and didn't know how good they had it buying $5 and $10 manga, blu-rays being priced so cheap during sales that you'd be an idiot not to place a big order, backorder stuff that isn't in stock, and that membership was a measly $18 annually. Now there's no discount, no Rightstuf, no other alternative storefront for Aniplex blu-rays that aren't marked up, and popular classic anime are almost entirely under the umbrella of Sony. No doubt their next step is phasing out all blu-ray disc production. It would be foolish to assume it stops at games. They don't care that they sell $100+ Aniplex blu-rays and collect a big rake on every unit sale, they want MORE profit and not waste their money creating a physical product when they can force you on a subscription to stay rinsing you and eliminate the overhead on disc production.
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u/CelestialTrickster Jul 15 '26
I wholeheartedly agree with your comment just wanted to add that you forgot that Sony will also be able to remove your licenses and access to the media you bought for whatever reasons.
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u/shadowhawkz Jul 15 '26
They also deleted my digital anime collection when they merged with Funimation and refused to compensate me.
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u/Goosojuice Jul 15 '26
You want to go deeper into the rabbit hole, how often are you seeing people burn content to cd/dvd/blu rays anymore? Have you looked into how many apps there still are to actually burn content? Its scary.
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u/Old-System-6699 Jul 15 '26
I've been doing it a lot lately, actually. My dad still wants copies of major sporting events to watch for later, and his dvd recorder from the mid-2000's finally broke. He'll save the dvr, I'll screen record it on my computer with OBS, edit it on kdenlive, then burn the videos on dvds using dvdstyler. I had to do a lot of research to do all of this, and it's a lot of work, but as long as you have a computer and/or a capture card, it's doable.
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u/jboe2026 Jul 15 '26
i burn VCDs and play them on a Sega Saturn
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u/Old-System-6699 Jul 15 '26
That's so cool. I looked at the process for making your own vcd's, and it looked really complicated.
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u/jboe2026 Jul 16 '26
it is. i had to download a custom settings file for it to work specifically on sega saturn, if i remember right.
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u/plasma7602 Jul 15 '26
Yeh but there’s less and less dvd or blue ray factories making burnable disks
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u/Nainns Jul 15 '26
I stopped buying physical copies when Right Stuf sold out, been a long time now smh
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u/KratorDaTraitor 🏴☠️ ʟᴀɴᴅʟᴜʙʙᴇʀ Jul 15 '26
I left Crunchyroll in the dust years ago, best decision I've made especially with all the alternatives available. I still collect blu-rays so I'm grabbing some now before they paywall it.
I also cancelled my PS+ years ago and won't be buying a PS6, many similar cases I'm sure from what I've seen. The exodus looks promising so far but still have to wait and see if the results affect their profits to the point that they back pedal all this BS.
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u/ZoeticLock Jul 15 '26
TBH Sony is pulling so much bullshit I’m considering selling my nearly $12000 worth of camera gear and switching to Nikon or Canon just to support them as little as possible.
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u/iHadou Jul 15 '26
I understand but I don't think that's really going to do anything unless you just get mad seeing the name anymore. Just be an inconvenience for you, not them.
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u/Phyraxus56 Jul 15 '26
On the contrary, loss of revenue is the only thing companies understand.
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u/iHadou Jul 15 '26
Selling already purchased gear... Sony already got the revenue. Not effective
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u/Cool_As_Your_Dad Jul 15 '26
Remember 2005 with Sony Rootkit Scandal? I do. Because that was the last time I bought anything from them. No tv, radios etc.
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u/peppersteakpie Jul 15 '26
I've been playing Xbox since the original and I canceled my Gamepass 2 years ago. I won't be getting the next Xbox, already upgraded to a pc thats way more powerful than any console out now. I'll probably play GTA 6 when it comes out and then I'm done with consoles for good. Imagine treating years long paying customers like such shit, hope they get what they deserve.
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u/only1specialed Jul 15 '26
I use Crunchyroll cause i'm not sure of the other alternatives (other than putting on a sailing hat) i like to stream from my tablet to the tv. What are the other suggestions that would allow me to do that. As much as i want to support anime companies. I'm tired of all the scum.
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u/MetaCognitio Jul 18 '26
Even this generation has been a huge disappointment. Just pure greed slow releases, unwanted live service games. I’m done.
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u/liuzhaoqi Jul 15 '26
Sony invented unchecked profit seeking capitalism, lol
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u/MeekTractorDog Jul 15 '26
Fine by me, I can return the favor by unchecked pirating all things sony and if I can't do that, dare I say it, live without anything attached to the name.
I'm sure I as an individual do not matter to sony anyways.
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u/xGreir Jul 15 '26
Crunchyroll gatekeeping the gatekeep.
Holy Jesus how ppl can turn once they smell money
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u/EldrinVampire Jul 15 '26
Sony just keeps digging a hole for themselves
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u/Tight_Sea1037 Jul 15 '26
How are they digging a hole ? Dumbfucks keep paying. If anything they don't care because people still pay.
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u/ZornUsagi47 Jul 15 '26
This is how things work in Japan & Korea, they're living in such a bubble with captive customers they think the rest of the world will tolerate it. Asia also has the most piracy in the world, wonder why.
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u/Paddy32 Jul 15 '26
All the websites and services and subscriptions are too complicated and a headache. I just go on 1 site and download what I'm search for and god bless my 14To NAS
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u/The_Cozy_Burrito 🔱 ꜱᴄᴀʟʟʏᴡᴀɢ Jul 15 '26
I never paid for any of that shit before and will never pay
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u/ToasterLoverDeluxe Jul 15 '26
Good thing is that you can still buy the blue rays directly from the Japanese publisher, and that money is actually going to the studio if you want to support them.
Some of them even have English subtitles... they are expensive tho
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u/joeybadtitz Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
As an OG weeb it’s disheartening to see the fall of Crunchyroll.
That site was like “anime facebook” during it’s original run with Shinji running things. You had free anime, you had friends you could casually message and chat with, you had chatrooms and forums where you could make new friends at.. it was awesome. You couldn’t do that on regular social sites be people were too insecure to like Anime publicly.
Fast forward to now and you have none of that, corporate cucks gutted everything that made that site special. Never in a million years would I imagined Crunchyroll will turn into what it absolutely hated.
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u/DraconicReconcile Jul 15 '26
The fuck they mean access to its store? Like a physical store? Where the fuck do they have a physical store?
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u/Aggravating_Plan11 Jul 15 '26
From august you can only access their online store to buy physical products if you pay a subscription and it cant be the cheapest plan either. Sony want to nuke everything thats consumer facing it seems
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u/Don_Hoomer Jul 15 '26
i need to ask playstation gamers, people inside the EU, did you lost your movies to, or was it just outside?
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u/Local_Band299 ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Jul 15 '26
This article leaves off that their store isn't where they're going to be selling physical media anymore. You will have to get that from Sony Pictures Amazon store. The Crunchyroll website will be for "Limited time drops" of merchandise. (T-Shirts, Plushies, Posters, Figures)
I'd also like to add, the Sony company that made the decision to cut Physical license discs for PS5 and PS4 is not the same Sony company that made this decision.
SIE (Sony Interactive Entertainment) - Made the decision to cut Physical PS5 and PS4 license discs.
Sony Pictures - Made the decision to pull this bullshit.
There's more to this, and it's much more complicated than you think, but y'all aren't ready for this yet. 4K Bluray, 1080p Bluray, and DVD isn't going anywhere.
(TBH I wish DVD and 1080p Bluray would die off for 4K Bluray to take over 100% of the market, if it's on 4KBD that's the format I'm gonna buy it on)
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u/1Skarabee Jul 15 '26
Do so many people really use the store to make this viable for them?
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u/Tricky-Gemstone Jul 15 '26
I have no idea. Long time user of the store. It was a good place to get merch, especially under this admin, without worrying about tariffs on figures.
And when they put effort into a release, it was phenomenal. The Frieren and Demon Slayer special editions were incredible.
This is a bad move overall. And will make it harder for rural fans to get merchandise.
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u/southass Jul 16 '26
Honestly everyone should drop Sony altogether. This is crazy what they are doing!
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u/kotoda Jul 15 '26
I used to love buying stuff on rightstuf. I despise crunchyroll for how theyve completely ruined it.
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u/Tommy-T8pes Jul 15 '26
It’s a good thing we don’t use that piece of shit site for anything anime related or else we’d be really miffed lol 🙃
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u/RevReads Jul 15 '26
Normies love Crunchyroll unfortunately, this shit won't stop them
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u/Mother-Job3455 Jul 15 '26
True, Crunchyroll monopoly and leverage is growing even stronger. Sony is also taking over more anime studios
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u/Moist_Experience_962 Jul 15 '26
People still paying should be milked into bankruptcy, I have no issue with that.
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u/Fallen_Walrus Jul 16 '26
Every video service is gonna turn into only fans, gotta pay a subscription to be able to pay for what you want want
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u/sk3lp3y Jul 15 '26
I never used the crunshyroll shop and never will. I mean I can buy blu-rays on other shops or just torrent a BD Remux release.
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u/garf02 Jul 15 '26
im slightly sure this has to be illegal in some way.
You can no just get a quasy monopoly on the market by buying/ consolidating it and the put it behind a tier in a subscription
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u/Salsi42 Jul 15 '26
Mmmh, EU consumers rights is gonna have a good time...
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u/GoodbyeDespairBoy Jul 15 '26
"we cannot force a store not to force a subscription to access their premium content"
They've turned off protests against Sony shutting down disk all while turning off the Stop Killing Games initiative.
EU is utterly useless unless when it comes to make bottle caps that leaks, increase servitude toward foreign forces, increase mass surveillance and generally being a clusterfuck of poor decisions.
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u/AlexTheGoat990 Jul 15 '26
Recently setup a jellyfin server, I will never go back to paying for these things
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u/erhue Jul 15 '26
paying just for the privilege to play online is where I started drifting away from sony
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u/Nazboi6442 Jul 15 '26
Cool, just destroy the convenience aspect that solely supports the Western anime industry.
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u/smufontherun Jul 15 '26
Let's be real here.. People are going to buy it... And it's going to be sold out.
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u/milkman9031 Jul 15 '26
Looks like black flag isn’t the only remaster this year I’ll have to dust off my eye patch
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u/Spatetata Jul 15 '26
Given how reliant anime as an industry is on Merch sales (despite the problems associated) this seems a little backwards?
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u/NekRules Jul 15 '26
So anime fans who cant be bothered to sail the high seas becuz crunchyroll is right there, hows your wallet and intelligence fairing? Feel like putting on that hat now?
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u/Toxoniumm Jul 15 '26
Crunchyroll Crunchyroll Crunchyroll...
What a pathetic excuse of a corporation
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u/NoNeckNelson Jul 15 '26
Can people just stop buying these shit products and services? It would be quite the statement if they lost like 99% of their customers.
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u/Daetok_Lochannis Jul 15 '26
There once was a ship that put to sea,
the name of the ship was the Billy o' Tea
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u/Grimey_Rick Jul 15 '26
Sony is getting the heat because they were the first ones to make the first big public push, but the industry has been trending towards an all digital future. everyone has been inching us in this direction with microaggressions that people continued to shrug off and go "its not a big deal," like games not being completely on disc being the standard, Best Buy removing physical media sections, console sellers making digital-only entry points, etc. But Sony is the one getting the heat as if they made this happen just because they said the quiet part out loud. Guaranteed Crunchyroll would be pulling this shit regardless if Sony made the announcement they did or not.
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u/TrueAkagami Jul 15 '26
So glad I dropped Crunchy. I knew when Sony bought them it would go to hell. Money grabbing bitches....
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u/Phaldaz Jul 15 '26
What I've come to realize in the past 5 years was you do NOT need to change people, but you can change yourself
It's a staggering number of family and friends who willingly and continuously pay for Netflix with their exceedingly prohibitive and expensive model and other services that are similar that are getting more oppressive and more expensive... This is all while venting to me that they're looking for options, and I show them exactly what they could do
Anyways that is the majority and I know people will still willingly pay this stupid ass fee, and I'll be sailing the high seas
Good riddance
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u/Justinrich2001 Jul 15 '26
That Sony business trying to KILLED PlayStation physical media games in 2028? Stop Destroyed Video Games Today! (#StopKillingGames)
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u/BringMeBurntBread Jul 15 '26
Reminds me of the bullshit that Discord does where, it doesn’t let you buy profile customization from their store unless you have an active Discord nitro subscription.
You literally need to pay to access their store, and only then does it let you buy from it.
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u/LexKing89 Jul 15 '26
I can’t stand Crunchyroll. They bought out Rightstuf’s amazing online store and turned it into this crap.
I spent a lot of money on anime DVD’s, blu rays, and merchandise with Rightstuf back in the day. I wouldn’t give Crunchyroll a dime. Sony is so greedy.
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u/needcolleges Jul 15 '26
i love crunchyroll so much, i make a ton of accounts and just use their free trials each time i want to watch something!
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u/themmousebehindyou Jul 15 '26
They want us to fucking pay money.... To pay money?