Regardless of your preferred platform for gaming, cross-platform support is a feature beloved and demanded by gamers. Sony used to have no cross-platform support, games would usually have cross-platform support between PC, Xbox and Switch, but that changed with Fortnite by late 2018. In fact, Shawn Layden said at the time that “that’s what we really wanted to do, but the preparation process took a long time.”
Some of the documents that emerged along with the Apple vs Epic case were related to Sony’s Cross-Platform policy. These documents show that Sony also charges developers royalties for cross-platform support if its monthly PSN revenue share drops below 85%. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said on the court stand that Sony was the only platform epic paid for cross-platform support.
The document, which includes details of Sony’s cross-platform policy, also includes the requirement to remove this support or the inability to transfer virtual currency from PlayStation; or PlayStation.
However, this document has actually been accidentally disclosed, because Sony does not really want anyone to see it. In fact, they applied to the court yesterday to keep these documents confidential, and the documents were removed today.
We’ll see how other platform owners approach the revelation that Sony is being paid for the cross-platform.