This year has been all about giving Funimation fans who like to stream their anime the most extraordinary experience we can. We started out in January with a new logo and a new name for our streaming service: FunimationNow. Since then we’ve been constantly rolling out new changes, and we’ve got a big slate of announcements to share with you!
In March we released all new mobile apps for iOS, Android, Kindle and Windows 10. Many of you have downloaded the new apps, and we appreciate all the love and feedback you’ve sent our way. More updates and upgrades are coming to the mobile apps every day, so make sure you’re always watching on the latest versions. And, if you’re going to meet us at a con, make sure you download your app and log in, because we’re going to have special rewards for fans who show us they’re FunimationNow subscribers! Also in March, we launched the beta site for FunimationNow in the UK. We’re so excited to welcome a whole new group of fans to Funimation, and we want to thank everyone who has shared their fandom with us from across the pond!
Coming up next we’ve got two more FunimationNow apps to release, with Amazon Fire TV coming in a few weeks, and Apple TV in June (both in the US and the UK). We’re excited to move to the big screen for anime fans by bringing the first ever anime streaming app to Amazon Fire TV and on tvOS for the new Apple TV! Add that to the broadcast dubs of great shows like My Hero Academia and And you thought there was never a girl online? coming out, and you’re going to need to schedule some serious anime couch time.
In September, we’ll be launching a totally re-imagined website, with an incredible experience for desktop users of FunimationNow. Get ready to share your favorite clips with your friends, shop for new merchandise, and post to our forums — all while you’re watching. This is coming out later than we planned, but there’s a really good reason: we’re re-encoding our massive library to show each video in its best possible picture quality AND switching from hard to soft subtitles. When we launch in September, over half of our catalog will be using soft subtitles, and we expect to have everything converted by the end of this year. That’s right: no more hard-sub picture quality issues anymore! Plus, you’ll be able to turn subtitles off and watch with just the Japanese audio if you speak that language (or if you’re learning!).
September will also see new apps for all the consoles we support: Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. We’re also proud to announce we’re adding the PS Vita to our lineup, so fans will have a whole new handheld way to watch their favorite shows. We know a lot of you will ask about Nintendo devices, and we’re researching what we can do with our new platform to release on the Wii U or 3DS – we should have more updates on that soon.
Watching your favorite anime anytime and anywhere has never been easier – and it’s about to get even better on FunimationNow. Thanks for all your support so far, and we can’t wait for the weeks ahead!