By now, a lot of gamers are quite furious with Sony for their recent decision to end production of all physical media in 2028. You don’t need to be a genius to guess why either. This decision undoubtedly made out of pure, naked greed will ultimately drive up prices for games across the industry. Heck, national governments like the Netherlands and Mexico are already suing Sony over that greedy decision for violating anti-trust laws. This is already looking like it will be generating loads upon loads of bad press for Sony. Unfortunately, Sony has not taken the hint and seems to be pouring fuel onto their own self-made dumpster fire. Starting with one of their subsidiaries: Crunchyroll.
Crunchyroll recently announced in their store news post that starting in August 2026, Crunchyroll Store will be locked behind a paywall. Said store will be available exclusively to subscriptions at Mega Fan and Ultimate Fan tiers. Tiers which currently costs $13.99 USD and $17.99 USD per month respectively as of this writing. As part of this planned paywall locking, the Crunchyroll Store is announcing a final Summer Sale for the store, with select items getting a 50% discount starting on July 14, 2026. This “final sale” is officially designated as such, with all discounted items having refunds and returns being accepted only for damaged or defective goods. Refunds and returns for any other reason will apparently be rejected.
But What About Fan Tier?
As for everyone at Fan tier? You know, the one that Crunchyroll recently decided to jack the price up to $9.99 USD per month from its original price of $7.99 USD? Well, GamesRadar+ acquired information from Crunchyroll themselves clarifying that everyone at Fan tier will still be able to “browse” through the Crunchyroll Store. As in: Fan tier subscribers will still be able to access the store and look through the selections. However, subscribers will need to be at Mega Fan or Ultimate Fan tiers to be able to actually purchase anything through the “new curated experience” after the August 2026 update.
Journalists are still looking into the matter, so check back here for more information as this story develops.
Crunchyroll Store Now a Paywalled Experience
Honestly, this whole business reeks of scummy greed on the part of Sony. It’s also honestly an insane proposition on Crunchyroll’s part. Imagine, if you will, a store in which you need to pay a fee in order to just be able to get in…and then you need to pay an additional fee if you want the privilege to purchase anything on top of the sales price of what you want to buy? Needless to say, the vast majority of normal people would consider that to be an unhinged and demented policy for any store to have. If that is completely unacceptable and absolutely insane for a physical store to do, then why would it be acceptable for an online store to do just that?
Unfortunately, we don’t control Crunchyroll Store policy. Sony does, and look at what Sony are doing to physical games. Fortunately, we do have a way to fight back: with our words and wallets. Talking about your anger at Sony’s decision in online spaces will make Sony sweat, even just a bit. Your wallets will be the real weapons though. If you all just refuse to pay for that Crunchyroll Store paywall, then you all will show that Sony’s paywall decision is completely unprofitable for them. It will show them that the paywall will just drive away customers. Here’s hoping that they’re sane enough to change their policy if that happens.
What do you all think? Are you too furious at this decision by Sony to lock the Crunchyroll Store behind a paywall? Tell us your angry thoughts in the comments section below.
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