Report: Sony The Only Firm To Charge Developers A Premium To Feature Cross-play On Its Platform

For those that might recall how cross-play operated just a few years ago, it was the impossible to even suggest that full-on support for the feature to bridge opposing platform lobbies into one ecosystem. In that, Sony Interactive Entertainment was hesitant to do so. But, Fortnite alongside Rocket League after pushed through the floodgate as the PlayStation company later pledged any game is open to cross-play for PlayStation systems now.

But, that is not truly the end of the story as we might presume. As disclosed by new documents that surfaced through the ongoing Epic Games v. Apple court battle, it reveals that Sony Interactive Entertainment was still a large obstacle in the way of cross-platform play. According to a report from The Verge, the firm charged a premium that developers had to pay to enable the feature – Epic Games is one of those companies.

You can view the slide provided from the court on Sony’s cross-platform policy in the image below:

“In certain circumstances Epic will have to pay additional revenue to Sony,” Tim Sweeney, Epic Games CEO stated in his testimony this week. “If somebody were primarily playing on PlayStation, but paying on iPhone then this might trigger compensation.”

Prior to the outright blocking of Fortnite cross-play on PlayStation back in 2018, Epic Games in a pursuit to play in the favor of Sony Interactive Entertainment pitched potential collaborations that would benefit users uniquely on PlayStation 4. “We announce crossplay in conjunction with Sony. Epic goes out of its way to make Sony look like heroes,” said Joe Kreiner, Epic Games’ Vice President of Business Development.

But, despite the far-casted bait that Epic Games provided Sony, the PlayStation firm ended by denying any compliance for the offers. Gio Corsi, Then-Sony Senior Director of Developer Relations told that “cross-platform play is not a slam dunk no matter the size of the title.” He added, “As you know, many companies are exploring this idea and not a single one can explain how cross-console play improves the PlayStation business.”

In the recent details that surfaced through the court battle, it was learned that Epic Games purposefully walled any potential entry point for Fortnite on xCloud. In that, the publisher believed that the platform does not benefit the version already offered to its users. You can read the full report by heading here.

Are you surprised by the new discovery on behalf of Sony Interactive Entertainment?

Source: The Verge