Sony set to buy Crunchyroll for nearly $1bn
Will soon have the power of anime on its side.
Sony will pay almost $1bn to acquire Crunchyroll, the hugely-popular anime-streaming service available through both Xbox and PlayStation consoles.
The PlayStation maker is in final negotiations to seal the deal with a $957m bid and is the only company in the running, Nikkei Asia reports.
Sony already owns anime service Funanimation, which has a million subscribers, though this is dwarfed by Crunchyroll's three million subscribers and whopping 70m free members.
Investing in animation right now makes sense - it is relatively cheap to produce compared to live-action series (which currently have their own logistical issues with filming during the pandemic). Oh, and everyone's at home watching streaming services.
That value is reflected in the company's near-billion dollar value - although it's still nowhere near the $7.5bn Microsoft is paying for Bethesda.