What were these changes initially pitched as?ĬomiXology’s hype for this announcement was all about the positive back in September. So that’s what we’re going to do, starting with the relatively utopian view the company had from the start. With nothing on that front to lean on, I decided to take a couple days, let the information simmer within me, spend some time with the new app, and do my best to answer those same queries I had in hopes of better understanding this momentous change. I reached out to them and heard nothing back. Unfortunately for you - doubly so, it seems - ComiXology did not have answers. Too much, really.Īnd, naturally, I have questions. And that’s where they are after this wave of changes for the ComiXology 4.0 update, including the removal of subscriptions for users outside of the United States, the comparatively comic fan friendly being replaced by a clunky Amazon shopping experience, a web reader that is non-functional whenever double page spreads show up, the cancelation of all post-February 16 pre-orders, and assorted other changes. That is typically imagined as a great erasure of the products you bought, as, say, your entire library of songs or movies purchased via Apple went away.īut in making its service one that no longer works in the way users were used to, ComiXology achieved a roughly equivalent sentiment amongst its customers base.

One of the great fears people have when committing to digital services like ComiXology is that they as an individual will commit to using it, and one day the product will cease to operate in the way they signed up for. And, for the most part, it’s understandable that the reaction was as visceral as it was. Unfortunately for them, that achievement was a double-edged sword, as the thing comic fans agreed on was that ComiXology grievously harmed its own product. They managed to get every comic fan to agree on something. It’s rare to do something unique like this, a feat many have tried and failed at. Something I never expected, if only because of how divisive the average news item is, even in – or maybe especially in – an entertainment sector like comic books. They did something previously considered impossible as they rolled out the new version of the ComiXology app and associated changes. Congratulations to ComiXology and Amazon.

Comixology