PlayStation Plus may reportedly add a new premium tier including Crunchyroll

Sony may be planning to add a new ‘premium’ tier of PlayStation Plus which includes a Crunchyroll subscription.

That’s according to a Eurogamer report, which claims there are plans to offer Crunchyroll as part of a more expensive PS Plus subscription.

Sony announced in December 2020 that it was planning to acquire Crunchyroll for $1.175 billion.

This acquisition was officially completed earlier this week, with Sony announcing in a press statement that Crunchyroll was now part of its Funimation Global Group company.

Now it seems that Sony is considering offering Crunchyroll access to PlayStation Plus subscribers as part of a ‘premium’ subscription.

Crunchyroll is an anime streaming service which was originally founded in 2006 by a group of university graduates.

The service offers over 1000 anime shows, and hasover 120 million registered users across more than 200 countries.

While it offers free ad-supported streams of some content, it also has a paid streaming service which currently boasts 5 million subscribers.

Sony confirmed in April that it was testing a new PlayStation Plus Video Pass service in Poland. The service allows PS4 and PS5 users in Poland to access around 20 movie and television shows from Sony Pictures as part of PS Plus subscriptions, with more content being added every three months.

Further reading

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Sony looks set to announce ‘PlayStation Plus Video Pass’

Website listing suggests Sony could offer video content as part of subscriptions

The test will run for a year in Poland, SIE’s global services VP Nick Maguire told Spider’s Web. The exec said the company decided to hold the test in Poland based on specific data, and that Sony would monitor the popularity of the service before deciding on a full launch.

“We want to see how players will benefit from such a service,” he explained. “What titles do they watch, what do they care about, how often do they use them.”

Sony also confirmed in March that the PlayStation Store will stop offering TV and movie content for purchase or rental from August 31.

Earlier this month Sony indicated it’s not concerned about a recent decline in PlayStation Plus subscribers, which it put down to last year’s Covid-19 stay-at-home restrictions and the increase they had on game activity.