Welp, I expect the usual PR of "protecting the PlayStation consumer base" or other such wooly wording.
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Epic lawsuit shows Sony asks publishers for compensation if MTX / playerbase ratio falls below certain amount compared to the cross-platform revenue
- Thread starter eonden
- Start date
Welp, I expect the usual PR of "protecting the PlayStation consumer base" or other such wooly wording.
Pretty much yeah. It spells it out in the leaked email from Gio Corsi. Until this arrangement PlayStation had no incentive to enable Crossplay (from their perspective)
Even before we knew this, it would have been cool were we chill and not assuming it was an industry wide practice.
In this case we know because Epic has clarified that only Sony has this policy.
Tim Sweeney, under oath, said Sony are the only ones that do.
Why would champion cross play just to charge devs to use it 😭
smh MS and Nintendo are behind the time again, they should learn from the market leader on how to create standard business contract.
Yes... Thats one developer/publisher.
Why is it such a big deal that Sony is the only one asking for compensation? I really don't understand that.
Wow...kinda thought the others would be doing it cause else it just looks bad.
Ok and you think other companies are afraid of Tim that they didn't dare to ask for similar contracts?
It's just more evidence that they are the only roadblock in the way of a better cross platform experience.
That's insane.
it really is....wonder if Microsoft had to pay them just to bring a United Minecraft together with bedrock.
Reminder that your gaming company of choice is not your friend and you should stop caping for them at the drop of a hat.
It's ironic that the only company that has this kind of practice that pretty much kills fighting games just bought EVO lol
But you are defending them lol - yes its not totally obvious, outright price fixing - Sony aren't that dumb. But this is literally the step below that and still very likely illegal under EU competition law. So how on Earth we have a slew of people in here either both siding this or worse - its honestly pretty shameful.
You are, as a market leader abusing your position and attempting to financially, punitively punish companies for engaging with a marketplace outside the one you own
Thats my whole point though...we don't know, yet we come to conclusions from every side. Find it funny is all
Because fees like this existing at all will damper crossplay efforts as some studios simply won't want to deal with a possible Sony tax.
We finally get to see how the sausage gets made. It's all fascinating to me.
Sony are guarding against a scenario where people are using their console, platform and network infrastructure (account system, friends system, party system etc) to play a game but then, when people go to pay for things inside the game, they get no revenue because the user buys elsewhere. It's not difficult to understand that this undermines the business model for those platform holders, which is why Apple and Google are in legal battles over it, and it's why Sony have put in place these clauses.
If I go into a shoe store, take a pair of shoes, and then pay for them in a different shoe store... that would be weird right? That's at least as close an analogy.
Its anti-consumer because it forces developers into a situation where they either have their game have cross progression and potentially pay Sony a fine, or not have cross progression with Playstation users.
I mean just because a multimillion dollar corporation is looking out for their financial best first doesn't mean you shouldn't be critical of them for shit like this. Yes this is a very scrupulous and strategic move by Sony, let's give them shit for it
I understand your point. Sony introducing conditions and complications to companies who want to make cross-play games is not good from consumer's standpoint. But imo this specific condition is perfectly reasonable for companies like Epic to agree with. So ultimately I don't think business practices like this hurt the consumers.
You can be excited for Ratchet and Clank without feeling the need to defend the actions of a large private corporation that wouldn't be impacted by this news story in any meaningful capacity. Just throwing it out there.
That doesn't make sense because Sony makes money of all those things. People aren't using like clandestine boxes to join Playstation services, they buy Playstations and Playstation games and pay for PS+.
It's like having to pay to enter a shoe store, buying the shoe, subscribing to their shoe polish service and then being annoyed people are buying shoelaces elsewhere.
But you need to stan these mega corps, you don't understand! Companies are good and evil, instead of just focusing on making money!
That doesn't make any sense when you don't need to buy Fortnite and you don't need PS+ to play it.
Would SONY have been aware of this information going public in advance? I am not familiar with the US legal system, but does SONY have no control over what goes public or not (as they are not one of the parties in the case). If they did have knowledge, you think they would get out in front of it. Either way, not a good look.
I'm not shocked that people are downplaying this, but I'm shocked that anyone actually believes this is ok. No, you don't get to mandate that other companies make money for you. I get why they did it (money, risk management sure), but there's no rationale that makes it reasonable, really. Look, if you happen to attract a bunch of kids to your platform, but their credit cards are tied to their phones not their consoles - why is that the publisher's fault...
These emails are INSANE. INSANE!!!!
Epic: YOUR UE4 LICENSE IS EXPIRING, SONY… 🙂🙂🙂
Sony: Ok, but what about MY UE5 LICENSE? 😏
Epic: Ok, pay me. And we'll make it look like a big deal.
Sony: Ok.
Then....
This post was from the announcement in Aug 2020, I think it's more likely than ever with the way the emails read:
These emails are INSANE. INSANE!!!!
You mean..
Epic: YOUR UE4 LICENSE IS EXPIRING, SONY… 🙂🙂🙂
Sony: Ok, but what about MY UE5 LICENSE? 😏
Epic: Ok, pay me. And we'll make it look like a big deal.
Sony: Ok.
Then....
This post was from the announcement in Aug 2020, I think it's more likely than ever with the way the emails read:
Heh.. exactly what I was thinking. What a way to get business intel on all of your competitors in one fell swoop. That's insane.
Yea, they would know. In fact, they might have had to provide it themselves. We know that Microsoft was able to redact several of their relevant documents. But, they probably couldn't do that with this because it's ACTUALLY pertinent evidence. Also why MS couldn't redact the information that they were considering dropping the console share to 12% as well.
That's bs and would make me hesitant to even bother releasing a smaller GaaS game (or maybe even brand new, huge one given the competition) on the device. Yeah Sony is fucking killing it on the console front with PS4 last gen and they're still using that momentum for PS5 but I'd hate to lose so much money on one platform cuz of a bs clause.
Fortnite is a free to play game and doesn't require PS+, so that's not really an apt comparison.
Well they aren't. This is literally the same issue that lead to the Apple and Google lawsuits. As for Microsoft and Nintendo, they have less to lose, and until very, very recently Microsoft was extracting a subscription from every user anyway.
You still need to buy the box, you're still spending likely spending money on the Playstation ecossystem.
This isn't surprising. Sony had/has the largest userbase so by allowing cross-play they'll be the ones to benefit the least from it.
Well it might if a game they loved was denied cross platform progression cuz sony were greedy
I buy my PSN cards online. Come on... You can get them in your supermarket, online, anywhere.
It is fair that the Devs making money out of a platformer's back (Sony or any other) would give back a service fee for the service of running the infrastructure in case the game running is only a loss on the platformer's side.
They're banking on that Fortnite players on PSN will buy MTX on the PSN store. They don't want Fortnite players on PSn to buy MTX on non PSN stores.