Here’s one of your last reminders that ComiXology’s digital store will soon be integrated with Amazon, at which point your new comic book purchases will no longer be DRM-free.
ComiXology’s plans to integrate more closely with its parent company’s store were announced back in September last year, with the change is expected to occur in “early 2022”. There’s no word yet on when exactly the change will be made; however, we suspect it will happen fairly swiftly after Amazon and Visa resolve their squabble in the UK.
Amazon and Visa are back in talks, which suggests they could be closer to an agreement, so it may be only a matter of weeks before the ComiXology store is no more.
Once the switch has been flipped (whenever it happens) ComiXology.com will start redirecting to Amazon.com’s “revamped digital comics shopping experience”, which is set to provide customers a more streamlined way to search for comics and manga on the site.
Unfortunately for comic book fans, though, the change also means that they’ll no longer be able to pick up new DRM-free downloads through ComiXology’s services, with the new Amazon store not supporting DRM-free downloads either.
Thankfully your library of already purchased comics will remain DRM-free. When asked about changes to its services ComiXology told a user on Twitter “Your previous ComiXology purchases will still allow for DRM-free backups if the publisher allowed for them at the time of purchase.”
So you’ll be able to save any comics you buy before the switch as PDFs that you can store independently of ComiXology’s own app.
With that in mind, if you’ve been holding out on buying certain issues in the series you love, you might want to take the plunge sooner rather than later; if they currently support DRM-free downloads you can buy it to secure the PDF download before it’s too late.
The change to ComiXology isn’t all doom and gloom. The storefront change will also bring an update to the app, with better navigation tools including flexible filtering and sorting as well as the ability to read while downloading.
ComiXology’s services will also be better integrated with the Kindle app, which has already added ComiXology’s panel-by-panel viewing experience.
These long-sought-after tools may not completely appease ComiXology fans disappointed by the DRM change, but they may at least soften the blow.
