With Sony completing its acquisition of the anime streaming service Crunchyroll earlier this week, it might be planning to include it with PS Plus. As reported by Eurogamer about the acquisition, a ‘premium’ version of PS Plus might arrive soon which will include both the PS Plus service as well as monthly access to Crunchyroll and Funimation allowing subscribers a taste of both worlds.
Sony confirmed earlier this week that it has acquired Crunchyroll after announcing last year that it has bid $957m for the company. Crunchyroll currently has over 5 million paying subscribers and more than 120 million registered users. With the acquisition of Crunchyroll, Sony now owns both Funimation and Crunchyroll, both of which are anime-streaming services. After the announcement, Sony releases a press release in which the CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. Tony Vinciquerra details:
With Crunchyroll and Funimation, we are committed to creating the ultimate anime experience for fans and presenting a unique opportunity for our key partners, publishers, and the immensely talented creators to continue to deliver their masterful content to audiences around the world.
With the addition of Crunchyroll, we have an unprecedented opportunity to serve anime fans like never before and deliver the anime experience across any platform they choose from theatrical, events, home entertainment, games, streaming, linear TV – everywhere and every way fans want to experience their anime. Our goal is to create a unified anime subscription experience as soon as possible.
While there is no official word on this by Sony or PlayStation, it would make perfect sense since PS4 and PS5 are the perfect platforms to further push Crunchyroll and Funimation. Both PS4 and PS5 support many other premium streaming apps such as Disney+, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and HOB+. It will make it perfect for Sony to allow users to get both Funimation and Crunchyroll and their PS Plus subscription however it will definitely rack up the price of the service.
Would you like to see Crunchyroll and Funimation arrive as a part of the PS Plus subscription? How much would be willing to pay for such a ‘premium’ service? Let us know in the comments section below.
