Fortnite
EpicThere’s about a story an hour coming out of the landmark Epic V. Apple case due to the enormous amount of both publicly released and leaked documents hitting the internet. But in a sea of breaking developments as Epic runs itself through an X-ray machine is a revelation about Sony and its stance on crossplay.
Fortnite having crossplay and cross-progression between all its platforms, including iOS, is a key part of Epic’s case, so they had to explain how that worked. And in doing so, they revealed that Sony is the only company they had to work out a special deal with that involves payment on occasion if the revenue breakdown isn’t meeting certain stipulations, something Sony appears to have not wanted released to the public.
The most eye-catching part of this deal is the email exchange that preceded it (via The Verge), with neither company coming off great.
Here’s Sony’s Gio Corsi, deviating from the public-facing argument against crossplay that mostly involves technical hurdles and customer service:
"As you know, many companies are exploring this idea and not a single one can explain how cross-console play improves the PlayStation business."
And Epic’s Joe Kreiner, framing Sony bending the knee as inevitable:
"I can't think of a scenario where Epic doesn't get what we want - that possibility went out the door when Fortnite became the biggest game on PlayStation."
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Again, some ego on both sides there, and so a compromise was made. Sony’s main issue appears to be players who spend the vast majority of time playing the game on PlayStation, but who spend a large proportion of money on a different platform like iOS or PC. So the deal was that in those situations, when spending and playtime don’t add up on PlayStation, Epic would have to pay to partially make up the difference.
Fortnite
EpicEpic actually spells out the exact math in a slide from their presentation:
- PSN Revenue Share divided by PSN Gameplay Share has to be less than 0.85
- So if PSN players spend $1 million across all platforms, and $900,000 of that is on PSN, Epic pays nothing because it’s more than 0.85.
- But if PSN players spend $1 million across all platforms and only $600,000 of that is on PSN, Epic pays Sony a $52,000 royalty because it’s less than 0.85.
Tim Sweeney came out and confirmed that Sony is the only platform that has demanded a deal like this, leading to questions about what other developers Sony has a similar deal with in terms of other titles that support crossplay.
Sony is coming across like the villain here, and yet from their perspective their position does…sort of make sense. When you have such a huge install base, you want to use that to your advantage to snowball your lead even further. You don’t want PlayStation players to play with their friends on Switch or Xbox, you want that person to convince those friends to buy two more PlayStations in order to play with them. But that notion is becoming increasingly antiquated and Epic was right that crossplay was here to stay. Whether Sony will be able to keep charging royalties like this in these specific revenue cases remains to be seen.
This entire trial is a fascinating look inside the inner workings of the industry, and I would expect a whole lot more developments to follow. Stay tuned.
I’ve reached out to Sony for comment on crossplay and will update if I hear back.
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The Link LonkMay 04, 2021 at 07:01PM
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Epic Reveals It’s Paying Sony For PlayStation Crossplay In Some Circumstances - Forbes
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