An acquisition would allow Sony to make a PlayStation Plus Premium service available to subscribers, but it would certainly cost more money for “the blues”.

Previously, Sony announced its plan to acquire Crunchyroll for 1.18 billion dollars. This company provides anime, manga, and dorama for its subscribers. However, Sony now confirmed the closure of the transaction, and now, there are plans already for the integration into the PlayStation fold.

Eurogamer reports that Sony is now planning to introduce a second subscription tier to PlayStation Plus. Microsoft’s Xbox Game PAss also has two tiers. Its Ultimate version allows access to stream games from the cloud (also on the Xbox app on PC for Xbox Insiders, as we mentioned yesterday), but it also pulls in EA Play and Xbox Live Gold into the mix.

It’s a good idea to believe the site, as they are also behind Digital Foundry, known for its solid technical analysis and comparison videos (as well as DF Retro). They tend to be respectable for such rumours. And they might be right. Sony has previously shopped in the anime market by acquiring Funimation, known for its anime distribution and streaming service.

“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 never like 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,” Tony Vinciquerra, the CEO of Sony Pictures, said.

Time for the PlayStation Plus second tier, then…

Source: WCCFTech