Crunchyroll's price hike softened with wholly original additions to gaming catalogue

• Crunchyroll is set to hike its prices as part of a recent overhaul
• But this news comes alongside the announcement of original developments for Game Vault
• Crunchyroll will partner with Japanese devs and publishers for this new content

You know, there's a saying that stupid is as stupid does. I'd like to amend that with irony is as irony does. And the fact that just this Monday I commented how much I felt Crunchyroll's Game Vault overshadowed Netflix's own efforts seems to have preempted the latest news.

Specifically, Crunchyroll is hiking their prices. But in this modern world of streaming, that's hardly news. What is news is that this hike is coming alongside a focus on making more original games for their Vault, on top of their existing strategy of releasing previous overseas exclusives.

It's something that I'm incredibly conflicted about. On the one hand, it's good that there's a push to provide value for money alongside this price hike. But on the other, if you're mainly interested in Crunchyroll for their focus on bringing niche Japanese releases to Western audiences, then this can seem like a strange new focus.

Crunchatise me

Specifically, in the recent podcast recorded by me and Will earlier this week, I mentioned how I felt Crunchyroll had stuck to its guns more than Netflix. Whereas the latter can't seem to decide whether they want indie hits or major AAA-style exclusives, Crunchyroll has always focused on the sort of stuff fans previously had to rely on imports or fanlations for.

It's not all bad news, as Crunchyroll is planning to team up with Japanese developers and publishers for these original entries. But in that same breath, not everything needs to be Netflix, and not everything needs to have its own original content in order to succeed. Sometimes you just want your goofy Japanese imports and nothing more.

Still, if you're curious about some of the other subscription services out there, arguably the most feature-complete and rich in content is none other than Apple's. Check out our list of all the games on Apple Arcade to see whether it tickles your fancy!