Update: Now that social media has a better understanding of what the crossplay policy implemented by PlayStation actually means, the backlash has shifted to the fact that Sony is the only organisation to enforce it. To be fair, this is at least a better focal point for fans’ frustration – even if the clause generally makes sense from a business perspective.
Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney, speaking at court today, confirmed that Sony is the only platform to have a policy that could potentially reward it with royalties if the ratio between a game’s revenue and PlayStation playtime is disproportionate. “If somebody were primarily playing on PlayStation, but paying on iPhone then this might trigger compensation,” he explained.
Sweeney didn’t, however, reveal whether Epic Games has ever actually had to pay this fee with Fortnite or any of its other titles. The legitimate worry from some players is that this clause may deter some publishers from supporting crossplay, although the number of All PS5, PS4 Crossplay Games grows every month. We’d need additional insight from publishers to know if that’s the case.
It’s worth noting that PlayStation is all in on the crossplay bandwagon these days: MLB The Show 21 is the first sports game to our knowledge to support the feature, and it’s developed by an internal Sony team.
Elsewhere, it’s also been pointed out that publishers can’t transfer virtual currency to and from PlayStation platforms. Expect more dirty laundry to be aired over the coming days, as the ongoing legal battle between Apple and Epic Games spills all sorts of industry secrets.
Original Story: Ah, the ol’ Epic Games and Apple lawsuit strikes yet again! New spreadsheet slides seemingly imply that Sony is charging developers to implement crossplay with PlayStation platforms – but as is often the case with these legalities, that’s not technically true. You may recall a Resident Evil Village clause had Twitter ablaze a few weeks ago, only for the actual language to be totally misinterpreted.
So, what’s going on here? Well, the document refers to something called 'Cross-Platform Revenue Share', and it’s basically a clause that ensures Sony is paid royalties by developers if there’s a disproportionate ratio between PlayStation playtime and overall game revenue in a crossplay release. You’re still confused, aren’t you?
So, let’s imagine Fortnite flogs $1,000,000 worth of V-Bucks in a month, but only $50,000 was spent through the PS Store. That’s just 5 per cent of the game’s overall revenue being purchased through PlayStation, right? Now let’s pretend that, in this scenario, 75 per cent of Fortnite’s overall playtime was on PS5 and PS4. In that case, the publisher would be required to pay Sony royalties based on the total revenue earned and PlayStation’s overall gameplay share.
Why, you may be asking, is Sony doing this? Well, because if 75 per cent of Fortnite’s playtime is being played through PSN but only 5 per cent of its revenue is being earned on Sony’s storefront, then the clause exists to protect the platform holder, as it’s providing the infrastructure and player base while others, in this example, would be profiting from it.
But, let’s say that Fortnite is generating $1,000,000 of revenue a month, and $900,000 is being spent on the PS Store. That’s 90 per cent of the game’s overall revenue. So, what if 95 per cent of the game’s playtime is being logged on PlayStation? Well, in this scenario, developers wouldn’t have to pay royalties because it falls within the boundaries of what Sony considers to be fair.
It’s an interesting clause, but it makes sense from PlayStation’s perspective: if it’s providing the majority of the playerbase, then it stands to reason that it would expect a roughly comparative share of the revenue. It’s worth noting that, for the vast majority of people, they’re most likely to purchase microtransactions on the system they play on, so we’d be shocked if there was ever a large enough difference between revenue share and gameplay time to enforce royalties on a developer.
The way this has been framed on social media has been misleading, with many believing that Sony is charging developers to implement crossplay in the first place. Based on the slide, this is not the case. It’s also worth stressing that these documents are dated 2019, and the company is yet to comment whether this clause still exists or not.
[source theverge.com]
Comments 49
Makes complete financial sense and is totally fair. Surprised Epic agreed though, they want everything and don’t care that others are providing the platform.
Edit to the update. Well, clearly, because it’s the platform with most subscribers it is the only platform currently likely to be impacted by a discrepancy between where people play and where people buy. That is, until Epic decide to give discounts for purchasing vbucks directly through them, but Epic would never seek to do that right? Seems that Sony were the only company to think this through...
@thefourfoldroot they care when the huge amount of players coming from playstation are spending money on their game ;D don't fool yourself, these guys are all about money, Sony, Epic, MS...
I think most people will agree that it is completely logical and fair, what Sony is doing here, without the need for one to have a business degree or be business adept. It is just common business sense, these companies exist to make money after all.
@AndrehF
Of course. I suspect they had to agree to get on, and once they have enough customers that it would look bad on Sony to remove them, they’ll renege on the deal.
It's kind of horrifying to think that the same people who repeatedly misinterpret these documents are probably applying the same level of critical thinking to other aspects of their daily lives. It's one thing to lack the ability to understand contracts or parse business emails, but to feel compelled to announce your incorrect interpretation to the the world takes a special kind of person.
These same people get to vote. Which explains why so many elections and referendums end up with crazy results. People misunderstand simple principles, believe half truths and get angry and vote from a completely misunderstood perspective - which is why misleading promises or lying in elections and electioneering should be illegal
Sounds reasonable enough, great explanation!
Doesn’t most of the Fortnite revenue come from PlayStation gamers anyway? Seems overkill but can’t hate the player, hate the game
This is called legally dotting your i’s and crossing your t’s and is exactly why lawyers and C.F.O’s earn what they do. Nice breakdown, PushSquare! It’s a little funny to me that an army of armchair executives think they’re gonna blow the doors open on a document that, if it was what they’re saying it is, would never in a million years have been signed in the first place. Wish people would put this type of passionate effort in accountability into what bills our governments pass on a regular basis.
First question. Why are there so many armchair legal experts these days. Contract law is extremely complex and requires years of training, so what makes people think they can interpret this stuff.
Second question. Why are so many people so quick to believe the stuff that some random on the internet portrays as fact.
Terrifying really. The age old adage of if these people told you to jump off a cliff, would you clearly applies here
I sort of don't care about behind the scenes of gaming business unless it's about games, like how much money to make games exclusive to some platform like monhun rise nintendo exclusivity, etc.
@Jimmer-jammer Armchair analyzing this stuff is easy. It's splitting earned revenue across contracted terms. Analyzing government legislature is hard. Analyzing money that doesn't actually exist, never actually did exist, never will exist, but was spent 35 years ago and now you calculate compounding interest on it before spending triple it again based on projected losses, and arrive at a positive number.....
Everyone hates Fortnite until Sony takes their money 🤣
It seems that some people are just trying their best to find things to bash SONY with each week. It's getting boring really and they should go and play some games(oh they haven't got any new games to play i guess)
@NEStalgia ha! All the while succeeding at convincing the populace to “rely on us” while working very hard to make ownership of assets an unobtainable pipe dream when those assets are literally the only thing of actual value created from the nonsense that is the monetary system. What a world.
@get2sammyb
Well explained Professor Barker. Full marks and all that jazz...
@Carl-G Oh don't even start that "no games" nonsense again. Pushsquare users melted down defending NOT having crossplay, when the industry was clearly and rapidly moving in that direction.
@get2sammyb Good report of this, though now.. a bit of an update.
"Epic CEO Tim Sweeney just confirmed that Sony is the only platform holder that requires Epic to pay compensation for crossplay. Epic had to agree to pay these additional fees to enable crossplay in Fortnite"
https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1389341010334003206
Sony is right to charge them. They're making a fortune from Fortnite, a game I personally despise with every fiber of my being.
@Shillll Thanks, yeah I just saw this. I've updated with the extra information!
Capitalism is great. This site wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for its parent company & its subsidiary’s.
It's getting pathetic now. Certain people are looking at every opportunity to bash Sony these days. I think some honestly think that if they keep discrediting Sony enough then people will stop buying PlayStations, bloody Baldrick can come up with a better plan then that.
A nice reminder of why I need to stay away from forum/enthusiast talk and just play and enjoy games. I'm so burnt out on the Resetera/Kotaku/Journalism (if you can call it that) talk of this industry. we're literally obsessed with the minutiae of the gaming world and I can't understand how this adds any sort of value to my life. PushSquare, plz don't turn into the next place I have to leave. One week "we hate Sony" the next their "our saviors". Smh...
The very fact this exists shows that gaming is not heading in a good direction. Remember when you went into a shop, bought a game on a platform and that was it? You put the disc in and you started playing. Now it’s all one big connected money-making scheme filled with digital licenses designed to take away all ownership, £20 JPEG images clearly aimed at impressionable children and fancy gambling.
So people are mad sony made a deal to make money off of people playing on their console? I hate the gaming industry lol who cares what you play, where, and how. Just enjoy it and stop fighting...
Get over it gamers, we aren’t to be concerned with these business practices..these are gaming companies after all! You’d think we’re in the comment section of politics or government with how gamers react to this news! Yet some people upset are the ones who spent money on micro- transactions that led companies to implementing these practices in the first place.
Struggling to care about this.
@Fight_Teza_Fight And the world wouldn't be being destroyed more and more rapidly every year. So, luxury and total death in the future or no luxury and no extinction... Hmmm, tough choice.
Friendly reminder that Sony is a huge corporation and that they primarily care about profit. It's never been "For the players", and never will be. Nintendo and Microsoft are the same. Microsoft's been playing nice with Xbox in the last half a decade to regain their reputation
Sony was the only company with the foresight to see that Epic would eventually try and screw them over so they protected themselves. They're the only company with some common sense.
Oh look. Another pointless fake outrage and coming from...? Oh Tom (console) Warren🙅♂️
Looks to me like Sony was the only company to think it through. Plus I can't be the only one who doesn't care about crossplay?
The policy it seems is aimed at free to play games. And Epic has no choice but to play by the rules set by Sony, because PSN is their biggest moneymaker.
It makes perfect sense to me. Sony is a business that like any other business wants money and I understand them wanting a piece of the pie if a customer is mostly playing on their platform.
Not to mention Epic agreed to the contract in the first place. It's not like Sony sprung this on them out of nowhere and Epic certainly had a good lawyer go over the contract for them before signing it.
@nessisonett It's kinda ironic how these things become more complicated as the transactions become more direct, isn't it?
Anyway, it's no different to the regular fee companies pay to be on a platform. This just ensures that they're getting a ''fair'' share, and nullifies the people buying MTX on PC, and playing on PS4 for example.
Another day, another story about Twitter being up in arms about something irrelevant.
(Not a knock at this PushSquare story, just a comment on the state of current-day Twitter.)
When asked why they wouldn't allow crossplay.
"Jim Ryan: Yeah. We've got to be mindful of our responsibility to our install base. Minecraft - the demographic playing that, you know as well as I do, it's all ages but it's also very young. We have a contract with the people who go online with us, that we look after them and they are within the PlayStation curated universe. Exposing what in many cases are children to external influences we have no ability to manage or look after, it's something we have to think about very carefully."
But really, it was just getting money. Go figure.
What about the chlidren Sony?
The irony of the situation is the fact that Epic is in court for the exact thing Sony is protecting itself from in their clause. Sony literally made Epic sign a contract that would prevent them from favoring microtransactions more on other platforms or side stepping them completely like they did with Apple and Google.
It's sad that people are angry at one company for being greedy when it's simply just a protection from publishers who are known for pulling actual greedy schemes like this.
Don't mind me, I'm just here to read the comments sugarcoating this to hell and back.
I support Sony's ability to protect itself and it's interests.
Epic probably agreed because they can't fight Apple and Sony.
Best defense is a good offence, also The Show should have never gone to GamePass.
it's not surprising. Sony knows they have the upper hand and they use it to their own advantage. However, it doesn't look good for Sony. They are asking to be compensated for the microtransaction revenue that they will potentially lose if they enable crossplay. A feature that should be on every multiplatform game. I guess this throws the argument that Sony doesn't care about microtransaction when they clearly do.
@AndrehF All companies why would do you think they exist. Nintendo is King at scummy mobile games.
@BrainHacker So you think its unreasonable? Why the would you make costs if you dont make revenue. Your response is total nonsense but thats me.
@Flaming_Kaiser They are still earning revenue from the microtransaction deals but they are asking the developers to pay them, if they didn't earn 90% of the revenue sales from their 95% gameplay share once they enable crossplay.
@AlexSora89 so what makes you angry about this? I mean, these are billion dollar companies throwing money around. I’ve never seen a single company do a thing like this and have gotten angry over it. I’m in it to play games. All the backdoor deals and payments don’t concern me.
Why is this even controversy? People do realise Sony has the right to earn money?. I see no issue if people are mostly playing on PS but do not make the purchases there for items that Sony gets a revenue share. I doubt that is the norm anyway, it is far more likely if you play on PS you buy through the PS store.
@bighal Sony can make their own policy for third party developers but the fact is, they are the only platform doing this clause. It makes business sense to them but no one needs to agree with this policy.
It's kinda ridiculous tbh. If I mainly use PS consoles to play Fortnite but for some reason, I bought a character skin on Nintendo/Xbox store then Sony will get a cut from it - out of the developers profit share. This kind of clause will stop developers from adding crossplay to their games, which sucks if you have friends or family on other platforms that you want to play with.
Keep fighting it SONY!!! I don't want crossplay to. If I want to game with cheating PC players I will get a PC and if I want to hear the worse sort of people on the Internet(mainly the horrible little kids on Xbox LIVE) I will play the game on xbox LIVE :-/
@Carl-G sony isn't your friend. Stop defending horrible practices
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