Whelp.
Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney has said that PlayStation’s Sony charges some publishers a fee to implement cross-play in certain circumstances.
The information has come to light as part of court proceedings between Epic Games and Apple, where Sweeney said that his company agreed to pay Sony to ensure cross-play would be supported on PlayStation.
“In certain circumstances Epic will have to pay additional revenue to Sony,” Sweeney said, via The Verge. “If somebody were primarily playing on PlayStation, but paying on iPhone then this might trigger compensation.”
The Verge’s report continues to release internal documents from Sony that show how cross-play charges are levied. A publisher is expected to pay a fee to Sony “to offset the reduction in revenue” if the proportion of PlayStation Network revenue share, divided by the PS4 gameplay share for a game, is less than 85 percent in that month.
Sony fought against the idea of cross-play in the later life of the PS4, riding off the console’s success. In early September 2018, Sony chief executive Kenichiro Yoshida said, “our way of thinking is always that PlayStation is the best place to play. Fortnite, I believe, partnered with PlayStation 4 is the best experience for users, that’s our belief.”
Later that same month, Sony confirmed it would allow cross-play over a number of titles, beginning with Fortnite and extending into popular titles like Rocket League and Minecraft.
We’ll keep you informed as more is learned.
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