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| Sony impeded shared play via PlayStation 4 |
It's no secret that Sony has been holding back cross-play on the PlayStation 4 for years, but new confidential documents and emails are showing how Japanese companies are refusing to allow people to play the same games with friends on other platforms.
Sony initially banned Rocket League and Minecraft from playing games together, although Nintendo and Microsoft allow players to play games through the Xbox and Switch.
This problem arose when the Japanese company banned cross-matching via Fortnite in 2018. Now it appears that Sony has been trying to recoup the potential loss in sales.
As reported in Epic Games versus Apple's email, Epic Games urged Sony to enable the feature in the months leading up to the decision to ban cross-play via Fortnite in 2018.
Epic Games said: If Fortnite becomes the biggest game on PlayStation, we encourage you to partner with Sony and do our best to make Sony compatible.
Epic Games offered to promote its presence on E3 through PlayStation or add specific characters to PS Plus subscribers, but Sony disagreed.
The Japanese company rejected the idea of the joint game, stressing that no matter the size of the game is not appropriate, saying, "Many companies are studying this idea, and no one can explain how to improve joint games. PlayStation activity."
However, as of August 2019, the Japanese company appears to have found a way to make money with its competitors in order to gain access to the PlayStation player.
As of August 2019 (following the change of Sony), the document entitled Crossplay Policies, Requirements and Procedures shows how Sony is now dealing with co-play.
The document reads: Sharing game earnings when PlayStation players contribute more than a certain percentage of the minimum, forcing publishers to pay Sony fees to offset the low income that allowed Sony to participate in the game together.
Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games (Tim Sweeney), has testified that Sony is the only platform owner who pays for the shared games.
In some cases, Sweeney said, we have to pay Sony additional income. If someone mainly plays the game through PlayStation but is paying through iPhone, they can receive compensation.
Sweeney also announced that Epic Games must agree to pay this additional fee to the Japanese company in order to play Fortnite together.
Sony has also indicated in its policy that publishers cannot convert virtual currency to and from PlayStation and that there should be a setting that blocks all interactions across platforms.
At first, these emails and documents were just a glimpse of Sony's efforts to ban co-op games, and it appears that the success of Epic Games and Fortnite eventually forced the company to compromise.