This is Part II of the 2022 year-in-review. Let’s finish up 2022 and look forward to 2023!
Seven Seas Workers Make Waves
Negotiations started in October, and a contract has not been reached yet, but congrats again to the workers of Seven Seas!
The Kohl’s Saga Continues
I still don’t understand why Franchise Group was interested in Kohl’s or why Kohl’s entertained them considering Kohl’s didn’t really want to sell itself. It was a deal that didn’t make sense from either side.
GameStop or NFTStop?
GameStop recently had a promotion where Pro members could spend $200 and get a free GameStop NFT. Their NFT push isn’t going away any time soon.
By the way, although the deal was at the beginning of November, the NFT isn’t going out until mid December. I just don’t get it though. “Look here’s my online badge that I technically don’t know that shows I can afford to spend $200 in a week at GameStop!! I’m so cool!!”
The Toys R Us Drama Continues
Back in October, Toys R Us creditors and the former executives Toys R Us reached a settlement. The agreement though is confidential, so we may never know what the plaintiffs uncovered or how much they got. So I guess this closes the last chapter of the old Toys R Us. We’ll have to wait and see how the current incarnation is doing. Wish I had a Macy’s nearby to see their in-store setup.
Back to School with Anime: 2022 Edition
I struggled this year to not be so same-y as previous entries. The lack of major discounts didn’t help either.
The Ups and Downs of Square Enix’s Manga UP!
Man, I want to like Manga UP! more, but it gets in its own way. Some chapters (and by chapters I mean Manga Up! chapters, not actual story chapters) are so short even for free, and it makes for a choppy reading experience. I’d rather have a limited amount of full chapters once daily than their current setup. Plus the chapters are rentals, which makes me even less likely to want to open up my wallet.
Crunchyroll Surprises by Shopping for a Shop
While this news took everyone off-guard, it was only a matter of time before Right Stuf president Shawne Kleckner departed. Still, he and his Dark Lord of savings persona have been a staple of the industry for so many years, and he will be missed.
The State of the Stream 2
Disney+’s price hikes just went into effect, so it will be interesting to see their numbers in the upcoming quarters and in the next year. We also have a likely name for HBO Max and Discovery+’s combined successor: Max. Well, uh, it’s not just Warner Bros. Discovery+ like how several other media conglomerates name their services, but it’s not very catchy or iconic either in my opinion.
Walmart+ Gets a Paramount New Benefit
Hey, I finally watched Sonic the Hedgehog 2! Knuckles’ “dot dot dot” scene was my favorite. But anyway, I’m getting some use out of the free Paramount+, but the free shipping and Scan & Go benefits are the main reasons I’m reupping my Walmart+ subscription this month.
GameStop is Accused of Going on a Raid
At the end of November, Belk agreed to drop the lawsuit against GameStop and their executives, as the two sides had reached an agreement.
The settlement is not public, but the case is officially closed. So we’ll probably never know why game and collectible shop with a newfound focus on NFTs decided it needed workers from a struggling department store chain.
eBay Tries to Corner the Trading Card Market
While the deal was expected to close in Q1 2023, eBay officially acquired TCGPlayer at the end of October. It isn’t often you hear about a deal closing several months ahead of schedule. But this also aligns with TCGPlayer now allowing sales of comics from Marvel and DC on its platform. For the sake of buyers and sellers who have kept TCGPlayer going for so long, I hope eBay doesn’t end up messing with the platform.
GameStonk The Movie and Other GameStop News
GameStop stock appears to finally be cooling off, and even the latest spikes still keep it under $30 a share. The latest news certainly won’t help for those hoping the price will go “to the moon” again.
I’m guessing the fact that free shipping now requires a minimum of $59 didn’t help. I know I passed picking up a few things with the threshold being higher now.
My Re-Start with Alpha Manga
One of my biggest disappointments of the year. Yes, I can still follow the latest chapters and the first few to get an idea of the story, but I miss being able to read any of the backlog for free but on a limited basis.
Of Unions and Recasts
I hope that the voice acting field keeps gaining more respect and awareness. Too often does it seem like voice actors are replaceable. I admire Kyle McCarley for presenting his side in a rather straightforward manner, unlike a certain someone who may have had a point about the pay in voice acting but purposely misled fans and caused a lot of wrongly directed uproar.
Deck the Halloween Halls
I had to stop myself from picking up a few Halloween things at Pokémon Center. Not sure I’ll be able to resist for Christmas though…But I thought this was a nice break from the usual costume roundup.
The Adult Swim x Crunchyroll Partnership Is Officially Sunk
Another inevitable casualty once AT&T started splintering off its divisions. But I hope some day all the rights can be worked out so that all of these titles don’t end up destined to be lost media.
Netflix Adds Ads as an Option
Basic with Ads has been doing well. So well Netflix is considering having multiple ad-supported tiers. I bet Netflix is trying to figure out how many of the people on Standard and Premium would downgrade and ensure they’d be making more money despite taking less from subscribers upfront. It might also draw a lot of new or old subscribers to the service, as I imagine most households prefer having at least two concurrent streams.
But if they need more money, can they please allow more of their exclusives to go to home video?? Please!!
PayPal’s Friendly And Not-So-Friendly Changes
So far, I haven’t had bought anything with PayPal that needed to return and would have been covered under their old free returns policy, but I do miss it. Meanwhile, I haven’t noticed any big changes with Honey yet. I don’t care what name it uses; I just want my cashback.
What To Expect This Holiday Shopping Season
I did expect a few more Switch console deals (like a bonus game or gift card with purchase), but Microsoft and retailers went big on the Xbox Series S. I think the best deal was $240 + $40 Amazon credit, and even though there’s no disc tray on the Series S, that certainly was a solid option for digital gamers. Overall, though, I haven’t been too impressed with video game deals this holiday season.
Simon & Schuster Will Probably Need to Find a New House
Once the government was granted an injunction, I did think it was more likely than not the merger would not happen. However, I didn’t expect to revisit this story so soon with the deal officially off the table since there would be no appeal.
Spotlight on Best Buy: 2022 Edition
As I mentioned previously, I hadn’t planned on doing a new Best Buy overview article. But with people still checking out and commenting on my article about Elite status being removed, I thought it was a good idea.
The Hunt for Anime Black Friday Deals: 2022 Edition
This was tough this year with so much of “Black Friday” covering all of November and even into December, and there were barely any ads to see what was coming that week. I imagine this trend is only going to continue. I did get lucky and pick up the latest Pokémon games for $50 + $10 back despite my local Meijer being out of stock early in the week, which was a surprise.
Penguin Random House is Forced to Wave the White Flag
The CEO of Penguin Random House recently announced he is leaving his position as well as his seat on the board of their parent company. He was publicly saying the merger was needed to compete against Amazon while sending emails saying the opposite, and additional texts turned up at trial where he was forced to explain why he thought his company “screwed” themselves after Penguin and Random House merged. It’s a good reminder of what you write can always come back to haunt you.
A Brief Stroll Through V-Scroll Comics
I probably won’t ever get the appeal of vertical comics. I know a couple of colorized vertical scrolling manga I’ve wanted to follow at Pocket Comics are now being picked up elsewhere, so I hope any of TATESC COMICS’ exclusives also have a chance of being licensed by someone else.