Sony is about to make the PlayStation 5 a lot more anime-friendly. At this week’s inaugural Crunchyroll Anime Future Forum in New York, PlayStation CEO Hideaki Nishino revealed that a dedicated Crunchyroll Anime Hub will be built directly into the PS5 home screen by spring 2027.
Not just an app shortcut
The hub won’t be a simple link to the Crunchyroll app. It will be a curated discovery and streaming surface inside the PS5 dashboard itself, where subscribers can browse simulcasts, pick up where they left off, and find Crunchyroll originals without ever leaving the PlayStation interface. The spring 2027 window is official, though Sony hasn’t pinned down an exact date yet.
Why Sony wants anime on your home screen
The move fits Sony’s bigger play. The company owns Crunchyroll through Sony Pictures, and anime keeps growing while much of the entertainment market stalls. Giving anime a first-class slot on the PS5 home screen — deeper than the existing Netflix tile — turns every PlayStation 5 into an anime machine and keeps subscribers inside Sony’s ecosystem longer.
Storyworks: a new anime pipeline
The forum brought more than UI news. Crunchyroll also unveiled Storyworks, a new Sony Pictures division devoted to developing anime and live-action adaptations from Crunchyroll IP. It is led by Tohru Iokibe and plugs directly into Hayate Inc., the animation studio Sony established to produce PlayStation-adjacent projects — concept to screen under one roof.
Ghost of Tsushima: Legends heads to Crunchyroll
The first headline act of that pipeline is already on the calendar: Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, an animated series coming to Crunchyroll in 2027. The show is produced by PS Productions and Aniplex with Hayate Inc. on animation, directed by Takanobu Mizuno with story composition by Gen Urobuchi and character designs by Takashi Okazaki. It follows the last samurai defending Tsushima against the Mongol invasion — familiar ground for anyone who played Sucker Punch’s hit, and an easy entry point for anime fans who never picked up a controller.
What PS5 owners should expect
The hub will arrive as a regular software update, so no new hardware is needed. You’ll need a Crunchyroll subscription to stream, and Sony hasn’t said whether the rollout will be global or phased by region. If the early 2027 timeline holds, PlayStation fans can expect a lot more anime talk on the platform soon — and a very samurai-flavored watchlist next year.
Sources: GameTrader.SG, Archynetys
