Earlier this month Crunchyroll announced the final step in their merger with rival Funimation, as Sony now owned both companies and was choosing to keep the more popular one. While the takeover means most anime can now be found in one place, there was one caveat that raised eyebrows: Crunchyroll said any digital copy of a movie or TV series purchased through Funimation effectively no longer existed.
This is the kind of thing collectors of physical media have been warning about — if you keep your property in someone else’s house, you can never be 100% sure said property won’t disappear someday. Many of these digital copies were the result of codes shipped with physical DVD or Blu-Rays of such content, and the discs will obviously still continue to function. But the digital copies, which require the company that issued them to exist, will not.
The Verge got Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini on the phone and demanded answers, at which point he admitted he was working on something. “[We] are working really hard directly with each [customer] to ensure that they have an appropriate value for what they got in the digital copy initially,” he claimed. That phrasing doesn’t make it sound like “restoration of the product, but on the Crunchyroll server this time” is an option.
There are two possibilities, said Purini. “It could be that they get access to a digital copy on any of the existing other services where they might be able to access it. It could be a discount access to our subscription service so they can get access to the same shows through our subscription service.”
Obviously, Crunchyroll’s customers would prefer the former, as it works in their favor. The second option works more in Crunchyroll’s favor, but no one would like it, as it’s more of a coupon than actual compensation.
Purini has yet to decide how Crunchyroll will handle this situation and when a definitive decision is announced, we’ll let you know.
