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Android initially with iOS to follow.
Crunchyroll, the popular Sony-owned anime streaming service, is doing a Netflix and offering mobile games as part of its subscriptions starting today, 7th November.
Game Vault, as the new offering is officially known, is only available Crunchyroll members who subscribe to the streaming service’s Mega Fan or Ultimate Fan tiers. The former costs £5.99/$9.99 USD a month, while the latter is a US-only addition, priced at $14.99 USD.
Alongside their existing subscription benefits – which currently includes ad-free streaming of anime, simulcast shows, digital manga, and offline viewing – eligible members will gain access to a growing library of downloadable mobile games, albeit initially only available on Android (via the Google Play store), but with iOS support coming “soon”.
As with Netflix’s similarly styled offering, Crunchyroll’s Game Vault will feature “premium” titles containing no adverts or micro-transactions, starting with developer Momo-pi’s tactical action game Captain Velvet: The Jump+ Dimensions, WayForward beat-em-up River City Girls, and single-player RPG Wolfstride from Ota Imon Studios. Silver Lining Studio’s visual novel Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery is also included, as is Afterburn’s food-themed puzzler Inbento.
Crunchyroll says new mobile titles will be added regularly, with more Game Vault features set to be introduced “incrementally to ensure stability.”
Crunchyroll’s decision to include mobile games with its higher-tier subscriptions arrives a little over two years after Netflix took its first steps into gaming with a similar mobile-focused membership offering. Since then, Netflix has made a number of notable studio acquisitions, including Oxenfree developer Night School and Triple Town studio Spry Fox, but despite an increasing push into the market, the streaming service’s own figures have shown less than 1 percent of subscribers play its games on a daily basis.
