Maybe it's time we get DRM?

[armageddon]

After what happened to all subscribers of Funimation, I'm wondering what if this happens to Steam?

[Sir Oinksalot]

What's the DRM?

[RiO]

cSg|mc-Hotsauce님이 먼저 게시:

RiO님이 먼저 게시:

Yes and no.

They're account merging existing Funimation accounts into Crunchyroll accounts and in the process are basically doubling subscription costs for those Funimation users.

They could have created a limited subscription at the cost tier of the old Funimation subscriptions and would still have saved a lot of money in consolidating all the back-end infrastructure and doing away with Funimation as a (streaming) brand.

But instead, the way they did it is basically a double-dip akin to how they migrated PS+ users to the new subscription format some time ago as well.

Sony gonna Sony.

The answer was yes, period. Funimation was the crappier service.

:winterbunny2023:

No it wasn't. You asked if they were just - i.e only - consolidating.

And while they are indeed consolidating, they're also bumping the price for those who were satisfied with the Funimation service. (If they wouldn't have been, they'd have moved to a Crunchyroll subscription earlier.)

Which is why I answered: yes and no.
It's a matter of perspective.

Pig5546님이 먼저 게시:

What's the DRM?

Op is arguing that we, as in the consumers, should get our own means of enforcing digital rights. To counter those used by the industry.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

RiO님이 먼저 게시:

cSg|mc-Hotsauce님이 먼저 게시:

The answer was yes, period. Funimation was the crappier service.

No it wasn't. You asked if they were just - i.e only - consolidating.

And while they are indeed consolidating, they're also bumping the price for those who were satisfied with the Funimation service. (If they wouldn't have been, they'd have moved to a Crunchyroll subscription earlier.)

Which is why I answered: yes and no.
It's a matter of perspective.

You all act like they are the only ones that raised their prices for streaming recently...

https://www.theverge.com/23901586/streaming-service-prices-netflix-disney-hulu-peacock-max

[RiO]

cSg|mc-Hotsauce님이 먼저 게시:

RiO님이 먼저 게시:

No it wasn't. You asked if they were just - i.e only - consolidating.

And while they are indeed consolidating, they're also bumping the price for those who were satisfied with the Funimation service. (If they wouldn't have been, they'd have moved to a Crunchyroll subscription earlier.)

Which is why I answered: yes and no.
It's a matter of perspective.

You all act like they are the only ones that raised their prices for streaming recently...

Here's the thing though: by moving Funimation users over to Crunchyroll, Sony is doubling those users' subscription costs.

Are Netflix, Disney, Hulu, etc. also doubling theirs?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

RiO님이 먼저 게시:

cSg|mc-Hotsauce님이 먼저 게시:

You all act like they are the only ones that raised their prices for streaming recently...

Here's the thing though: by moving Funimation users over to Crunchyroll, Sony is doubling those users' subscription costs.

Are Netflix, Disney, Hulu, etc. also doubling theirs?

Over the last decade, yes.

[Gwarsbane]

RiO님이 먼저 게시:

cSg|mc-Hotsauce님이 먼저 게시:

You all act like they are the only ones that raised their prices for streaming recently...

Here's the thing though: by moving Funimation users over to Crunchyroll, Sony is doubling those users' subscription costs.

Are Netflix, Disney, Hulu, etc. also doubling theirs?

Doubling at one time, no, but the prices since the start of the service has gone up more then double.

Disney+ started out at 7 dollars per month in Nov. 12, 2019 (no ads full 4k quality)
Disney+ just 5 years later is 15 dollars per month (no ads full 4k quality)

Disney+ with Hulu is 25 dollars per month (no ads full 4k quality)

If you want cheaper you either get it at lower quality or with ads and lower quality.


As for the other ones, no idea not going to research each one, disney+ is one I know the price has gone up quite a bit in only a few years. I do know that 1 or 2 of the streaming sites have put their prices up more then once in a single year.


Should Sony bring in the Funimation users at the price they were paying? Sure, and then start raising the price 1 dollar every couple of years, or raise it a little more then the regular users (when they get price hikes) till they hit the same price then everyone pays the same price.

BUT they also should give people some sort of credit for all the stuff they bought over on Funimation instead of just removing access to all those things. If they also sell them on Crunchyroll then they should just automatically get them and swallow the price themselves, or like I said give people equal credit on Crunchyroll for what they bought over on Funimation so they can either rebuy stuff there or just pay for months/years worth of subscriptions with them.

So in no way am I condoning what Sony is doing, its a PR nightmare of their own making, one that would have easily been either nothing or a PR win by thinking of all the existing customers and doing right by them.

I have no doubt, this could end up in the courts as a class action lawsuit, which sadly means while yes Sony would have to pay out a bunch of money and get even more bad PR, the users will not end up whole, thats never how class action suits work. The only winners are always the lawyers.



To bring this back around to Steam, as mentioned already, Valve has said they have a plan in place to make sure people will keep access to be able to download and play their games (as long as they are single player, not sure what they would do with multiplayer that requires servers to play).

Till something actually happens, till Valve actually says what they have planned, we have no idea what will happen or if they will keep their word.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

RiO님이 먼저 게시:

cSg|mc-Hotsauce님이 먼저 게시:

You all act like they are the only ones that raised their prices for streaming recently...

Here's the thing though: by moving Funimation users over to Crunchyroll, Sony is doubling those users' subscription costs.

Are Netflix, Disney, Hulu, etc. also doubling theirs?

Actually yes.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/18/23922319/netflix-q3-earnings-2023-price-hike-increase-basic-premium

Just google history on prices, they even now offer people service with Ads to make it cheaper, and charge more than double for WITHOUT Ads so yeah... Either way Sony done goof & made a nightmare on themselves, wouldn't be 1st time they done something that cause uproar.

[Reuben]

Valve said (years ago) that in the event of Steam closing down, they had a system to make your library downloadable, whether this is still true, I don't know.

[MeowDread]

Reuben님이 먼저 게시:

Valve said (years ago) that in the event of Steam closing down, they had a system to make your library downloadable, whether this is still true, I don't know.

This feels like it wouldn't work for games that rely on workshops (gmod, ppg etc)

[MeowDread]

Though, for gmod, you could download mods externally