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On the Steam anime sale a little while back, I noticed that Steam has added
support for steaming anime. One example is
[Gintama](http://store.steampowered.com/app/600860/Gintama/?snr=1_7_7_151_150_1).
When this sale was on, there was a large banner saying these streams have
something to do with Crunchyroll, whilst not as apparent anymore, you can
still see this connection in Steam by visiting the 'Visit the website' button
in the store. Which for Gintama, takes us to [this Crunchyroll
page](http://www.crunchyroll.com/gintama).

For the complete list of these you can visit the [Anime Streaming Videos Steam
Store
page](http://store.steampowered.com/search/?sort_by=Released_DESC&tags=4085&category1=992).
Where the Crunchyroll streams, for me, start at Gintama and ends at Izetta:
The Last Witch.

Are these streamed via Crunchyroll?  
If so, what advantages and disadvantages do I have for paying and streaming
them through Steam, rather than Crunchyroll?


CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-05-07T23:30:35.367
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2017-05-09T15:08:42.800
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question
streaming-sites
What's the difference between streaming anime via Steam and Crunchyroll?


In technical terms, there is little different between the anime on the two
source platforms. There are some minor encoding improvements with the steam
release, but this is probably not a strict attribute of the content

I imagine it is more likely that Crunchyroll has an older version of their
encoder on Steam videos in the internal rush to get the partnership out
(Purely a hunch, but as a software developer myself, many companies work in a
MVP "Minimal Viable Product" release environment, and do cleanup later).

Therefore, I would assume that their encoding is likely to change, even if
they do not update to their site's encoder, they have a team of developers
working on their encoders to try to get maximum performance out of their
servers (this caused some
[backlash](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/5yv8a7/crunchyroll_has_reduced_bitrate_by_4070_damaging/?st=j2fy0c6a&sh=d6f6bddd)
when Crunchyroll degraded quality substancially in the past).

For comparisons of image encoding, see [this Reddit
thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/62fcg4/crunchyroll_and_steam_partner_up/).

* * *

There are a few licensing differences between streaming via a Crunchyroll
subscription and purchasing a title to stream on Steam.

The most significant of which is that a purchased title will not expire. Often
Crunchyroll will expire titles that are underperforming in exchange for newer
titles. When you purchase a title on Steam, you do not have to worry about
this happening.

Also of course, you do not have to pay recurring payments to keep access to
your titles.

* * *

Thanks to @Peilonrayz for pointing out that Stream releases [are also
censored.](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/62fcg4/crunchyroll_and_steam_partner_up/dfm57e5/)

* * *

I believe the partnership with Steam is mostly a strategic move by Crunchyroll
to develop a dual pricing model of their services. This can be seen also with
the introduction of their Manga Store, for manga that are unavailable with
their subscription.

Partnership with Steam also gives Crunchyroll access to a significant target
market. Anime and Gaming overlaps significantly.

I imagine that this is mostly driven by growth goals set by investors and
demand from publishers - Similar to the Spotify or Youtube model, streaming
does not net much money for a series per view ( Crunchyroll claims counter to
this, but has not provided figures to date ) - however, if titles are sold
individually they can net much more. For larger series in particular, this is
a much more lucrative option.

I imagine that in the future we will see this pricing model develop further.

\--

**TLDR:** There is not much difference than the way you would like to pay for
the content. This move is more motivated by investors and producers


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answer