Sony Completes Acquisition of Anime Giant Crunchyroll

Sony could include Crunchyroll with PS+ subscription.

@RenanKJ They already could have included Funimation since 2017 and didn’t.

Wonder if they will combine them into one service. FunimaRoll or something like that. I'm not too worried though as other major steaming giants like Netflix and Amazon compete in the anime space too so its not like Sony has a monopoly yet, just a big portion of the anime pie.

It would be nice if we got crunchy roll or funimation included in our plus subscriptions but doubtful...i'd imagine doing that would end up having them lose money as anime is still somewhat niche when compared to the majority of plus subscribers as opposed to selling both subscriptions separately, I mean with the success of gamepass ultimate you'd think they'd do something similar with ps plus/now but still sell both separately at the very least we should hope they merge both sites under one service for a reasonable price

Congrats to Sony. This could be a huge win for ps plus subscribers if they combine all the services together in my opinion.

I just finished watching Jujutsu Kaisen last week and now I'm watching Demon Slayer, is it in either of these services?

@RenanKJ That, my friend, would be dope as hell.

Crunchyroll wtf 😂😄😳😀haha.is that a potato chip 2.word up son

Sony Should Make Anime Out Of Some Of Their Playstation Characters.

@AdamNovice i doubt they would do free , i could see a discount though.

@AdamNovice If they did. It would at least give me a reason to sub to PS+ since I already have Crunchyroll sub.

I wonder if Crunchyroll will continue to publish mobile games after this.

Sony basically IS anime now. Next step, increasing shares in Kadokawa Corp. from 2% to a majority stake.

Congrats Sony 🎊 now just aquire some Japanese gaming studios and we'll know you mean business!

Hopefully they merge so my subscription to one carries into the other.

@Bamila Honestly, I agree with you, a good chunk of PS Plus members wouldn't care, heck there might even be backlash thinking that the service would receive even more lower quality games each month if CR would be included.

Hopeful that it turns out like fandango moving to the much better Vudu so the less visually appealing chrunchyroll becomes part of funimation which like Vudu is the more appealing site

They should be buying Square Enix, Sega, Konami or Kadokawa + Fromsoftware instead.

Anyways, is not like this would be affecting playstation in a big way, Sony anime division has been giving the middle finger to playstation since a while, starting from giving access to Funimation to game pass subs and letting owned anime based videogames like Demon Slayer to go multiplat on rival platforms.

It's a little frustrating not seeing Sony with the same buying philosophy as Microsoft, aka, buying everyone they can. In this market, with the raising of subscription services, content is king, so they will need a really strong lineup of well known IPs and studios to stay relevant. Is not like they're not relevant, Don't get me wrong, but MS and Tencent are buying studios like crazy, if they (Sony) don't invest in the future there will be consequences.

If rolling it into plus makes those with game pass subscribe to plus some of them might be like May as well get a PlayStation 5 because they have to get plus for anime and might as well enjoy the ps5 exclusives or Sony might be thinking people will do this

Could also dig into Microsoft owning Bethesda where you can use funimation on Xbox if after 2 1/2 years a game comes out on PlayStation that way Xbox gets it's exclusive Window and PlayStation gets a goty edition

@oconnoclast AnimeLab has been merged into Funimation and the AnimeLab service will soon disappear. It's the same with Manga Entertainment UK streaming platform I believe. So they're merging all the smaller platforms I suppose. If I can have one subscription for both Funimation and Crunchyroll, that would be great. I believe Sony could add an extra subscription (or ad based) for a heap of movies and TV series they already own. They can keep doing their licensing deals with Netflix and Disney, but why not put some older titles or shows that the competition didn't want on the service. Something like "The Player" could have been finished off properly, instead of cut short.

I hope they combine it all into Funimation. That would be a show deal for my existing Funi subscription price.

@AFCC Funimation has the series and the movie which is important to the story.

It's monopoly, period.

Ha it’s a bit of a slow news time these days.
I just find it funny everybody is talking about acquisition and exclusives but not so long ago you were called a ‘FaNbOi’ on this site if you were supporting exclusive games (where it makes sense) and the advantage of them.
Too much extreme talk whereas compromise is often preferable.

The only anime that Sony won't have control over now are the ones that services like Netflix and Hulu etc still have huh? I'm not sure how I feel about that. Crunchyroll used to compete with Funimation...so now that that is gone and the options are drastically limited, Sony can force anything they want because hey...where else will we watch all the new animes?

Anime has become very mainstream in recent years so I can see why Sony snatched these big services up...it just remains to be seen what they plan to do with them.

i really hope this will be included with ps+.

Let’s hope they don’t handle anime in the same censor heavy way that they do videogames from Japan, leading to the necessity of self censorship at the creation stage .

Regarding PS Plus, I could see Sony offering one month free. Anime is quite niche compared to PS Plus I feel, so it could lead to more crunchymation users down the line. They’d never give it as part of the service though, and I wouldn’t want them to as the price would be more likely to go up and I’d rather they offer more games and do that than anime.

@ATaco there are plenty of anime sites that offer everything for free. Just like Steam, people choose Funimation and Crunchyroll for convenience or to support the creators. Sony can't do whatever they want.

@2here2there no it's not. Period.

There you go. Argument.

@Bamila Video games are basically interactive cartoons. I agree that anime isn't for everyone though.

@Bamila You... waste time playing games, what?

@AFCC JJK is on Crunchyroll, that’s where I watched it. Brilliant show

Crunchyroll suck, in my country even youtube (muse asia channel), a free service, has better (legal) and more anime than crunchyroll 😕

This will likely lead to more efficient marketing for their anime-based games like demon slayer. It also gives them more traction when anime creators want to create games or when game creators want to make anime (because Playstation would be able to market it best via crunchyroll and playstation platforms) Remains to be seen whether Sony will influence anime for better or worse though.

@AFCC Yes, both of those you have just watched are on Crunchyroll.

@Nepp67 I do. Don't you?

Does that mean Crunchyroll will stop offering three months of game pass for free if you sign up to crunchyroll?

@Nepp67 Haha I think you make a good point. Yeah I guess there are people who think we waste time playing games. Honestly it takes a mature person to respect other people's hobbies (provided they aren't the perverse type) I think the problem is people bucket all anime watchers into one bucket which is immature really. People often bucket gamers the same way.

@CynicalGamer exactly

@wiiware For me it was the only way to get series without any hassle or adds or whatever other crap

@wiiware Uh...you know Crunchyroll is a legal service right?

What Sony need to do is instead of there being a Crunchyroll and Funimation, merge the two together into one service. That would be awesome if they did that.

Hope its a good thing but when a CEO uses the word "Enthrall" it sets of my concernometer.

@TowaHerschel7 Yes it's legal, but the total number anime available in my country on crunchyroll app is super small, I can watch more anime on youtube muse asia channel or netflix rather than crunchyroll. I mean I can watch more anime legally on others service (like youtube and netflix) rather than on crunchyroll.

@naruball it’s a western monopoly. As combined Crunchyroll and Funimation distribute at least 50% of anime.
It might sound advantageous now, but in the long run this won’t be good for consumers.

@DenzelDM And like I said, there are other sources people can use to watch all those anime, even for free. So, no. There's no such danger. There are alternatives.

@naruball those free sources aren’t legal ways of watching anime. Which means legally it most definitely is (same way Disney buying out Fox is a monopoly).
And with an industry on the brink due to overworked and underpaid artists, I don’t think those “free” sites are any welcome sources to that industry.

@AdamNovice Ya it makes too much sense in my opinion. Additional anime and manga content like you said, and then they would have Fromsoft, which would obviously be huge on its own for gaming.

Sony already showed an interest in investing in them with the small 2% stake, and at the same time they announced some type of partnership I believe.

I can see them increasing their shares but you never know. With Sony sometimes the obvious isn’t always what they personally have in mind for their plans.

Interesting news. Let's just hope they don't try to include it with ps+.

@Beserker-Boy I can't seem to find Demon Slayer on my region, for some reason.

Aslong as they keep their censorship policy away

So we're getting a gravity rush anime, and gravity rush 3 now, right?

For the people that think Sony is going to do some bundles with anime and Playstation Plus, I wouldn't hold your breath. While there is some overlap between the sectors, Sony's individual sectors function very separately.

Everyday♪ Today's Menu for the Emiya Family is a perfect example. It is a console game that came out a couple months ago that is published and co-developed by Aniplex, which is owned by Sony. There is no reason it couldn't be on Playstation systems, but it is currently a Switch exclusive.

@naruball While that is true, going to the sites that offer anime for free aren't helping to sustain the industry so I'm not sure it's wise to treat them as a viable alternative. Fact of the matter is that legally Sony now has a major stranglehold on the anime industry by owning two of the biggest anime streaming services out there. It's not great seeing these mega corporations slowly buying everything out until it's only a few of them owning everything.

@Floki most definitely. Sony wants to get into mobile gaming for sure.

For all the people saying "Sony should add Crunchyroll and/or Funimation into PS+ subs" -

Monthly prices:
PS+ = $5
Funimation = $6
Crunchyroll = $8

If anything you would get PS+ included with a Crunchyroll subscription not the other way around.

And really, what are you thinking, Sony doesn't even offer a PS+ and PS Now discount, and those services sometimes have the same games, so why are they going to offer a deal with anime?

Sony getting rid of movies and shows on the PS Store leeches the door open for them to do something with Crunchyroll/Funimation and PS Plus. If they don't bundle them together maybe they give a big discount to PS+ members. Just a thought

It's so bizarre that while Sony Pictures turns into a monopoly for all Japanese content on a frightening level, SIE moves away from anything even remotely Japanese as far as it can move.

@DenzelDM @ATaco you're both missing my point. I'm not offering them as alternatives, but they exist and many will be tempted to use them if they find what Sony is offering absurd. So, if Sony raises prices considerably, the consumers will react accordingly. Because these alternatives exist and they're just a click away, Sony can't do whatever they want. When in a certain area/country there is only one provider of electricity, then they have the monopoly. For something digital like streaming, there is no such danger.

@Jaz007 ok nice! I am liking the series a lot!

@ShadowofSparta yeah I saw it there too! Liked it a lot, but it's not my favourite. The intro song was a banger thou

@uptownsoul I wasn’t interested in the first place. At no point did I show any interest.

@uptownsoul No bother, sometimes hard to get context on here.

Understanding that this is a gaming site with more people than usual in to anime, but is this really going to move the needle with a lot of people? I just don't think this has mass market appeal. I don't know one person that watches anime. Cool for those that are in to it though.

@ILikeStake I watch anime and every single gamer friend I have watches anime, too. That's why anecdotal evidence is unreliable.