The update made many unsubscribe from the service.
Summary:
- HIDIVE rolled out a new update, and fans are unhappy.
- It makes the website even harder to navigate than it was before.
- It was probably targeted at Xbox users.
Recently, there have been multiple overhauls to anime streaming websites. The most notorious one is the merger between Crunchyroll and Funimation, which upset the fans — a ton of anime was simply made unavailable during the transfer of Funimation-licensed content.
Moreover, that also resulted in Crunchyroll revamping some of its features — another controversial choice.
However, Crunchyroll is not the only anime streaming service updating its functionality. Another service, HIDIVE, has recently made massive changes to the entire website’s layout and interface — but fans are not happy about them at all.
Yellow Subs Can’t Be Turned Off Now
The most noticeably annoying part is the fact that you can’t switch from yellow subs now. While subs being yellow has been somewhat of a meme among anime fans, many found it more annoying than endearing.
Before the update, you could apply custom colorization to subs — something you can’t do now.
The Update Made the Website Worse
The new HIDIVE doesn’t fix the issues of the old layout while creating a handful of new ones. You still can’t go to the actual anime page from the episode page.
Now, though, you can’t even see the title when you hover over the video — nor can you see the release dates. You don’t even have any way to check if you’ve seen the episode before or not prior to actually starting it.
Naturally, this upsets many fans, and they are canceling their subscriptions — especially because the popular series from last season that were on HIDIVE are already over.
With Gushing over Magical Girls (Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete) and The Dangers in My Heart (Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu) having ended, many feel there’s no reason to be subscribed to HIDIVE at this point.
That said, most Spring 2024 anime are yet to start, and there’s a chance some series on HIDIVE will be huge hits — we don’t know yet.
It’s Not So Bad if You’re Using Xbox
While this update has undoubtedly been a disaster for PC users, and they are vocally unhappy about it, this doesn’t make it terrible for everyone. The update actually made the interface better if you’ve been using HIDIVE on Xbox, and many speculate that that’s what the service was going for.
Still, there was no reason to roll out such an update for every platform. It’s clearly not suited for PC users, and they have more than enough reason to be upset about it.