During the trial between Epic and Apple, it was revealed that Sony demanded a form of compensation for cross-play. We have to remember that, Sony did not allow cross-play until a backlash from Fortnite players in 2018.
Newly released documents from the Epic Games vs Apple case reveal that Epic tried to negotiate with Sony for cross-platform gameplay. However, after Sony finally allowed cross-platform play, it started charging developers according to the money their games earned on other platforms.
In its 2019 cross-platform revenue sharing document, Sony outlines a royalty payment policy for games that earn a significant portion of their money on non-PS4 platforms. The document states that, if the ratio of PSN revenue share divided by PS4 gameplay share in any month is less than 0.85 in any month, the partner will pay Sony a royalty to offset the decrease in revenue.
So, Sony tried to prevent PlayStation gamers from spending their money elsewhere while still using Sony’s servers and infrastructure. Developers were required to share with Sony monthly reports detailing the PS4 revenue share. Naturally, Sony also had to access data from players on other platforms.
To be frank, by doing this, Sony does not directly charge for cross-platform play on PlayStation. However, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said that Sony is the only company that sought compensation for cross-play capability. Of course, Sony’s attitude may have changed in the last two years since the document was created in 2019.
It should not be forgotten that when these events happened, PS4 was the clear winner of the console wars. In this case, I think it is quite natural that Sony did not want such a feature. How Sony’s policy works today is unknown. In this respect, we will update you if we get any further news.
