"Sony really hated PS4 crossplay, confidential documents reveal"

[SOURCE]

It was never a secret that Sony was against crossplay with its competitors but nonetheless it is interesting to see a sneak peak of how it played out behind the scenes.

Epic basically went out of their to make sure crossplay becomes a thing, one of the few things I can praise them for in recent years.

The rest is now history and crossplay is no longer a pipedream thankfully. Thoughts?

I find it funny how Sony fannies were in support of not having crossplay. 🤭 Fanboys are special. Sony was just delaying the inevitable.

Crossplay is too beneficial for both developers and consumers for it not to inevitably become a thing. I’m very happy to see it myself. Still more games need to utilize this.

Because they smelled big business. Why would you praise em for that? Did they give a couple of Ks?

Crossplay only benefitted Xbox users because XBL became a graveyard last gen. Xbox fanboys were literally on their knees begging for Sony to allow crossplay so they would have people to play with.

It was inevitable but I'm happy to have the ability to shut it off in some games as I honestly don't trust the PC base to not cheat online. That said, I rarely play online games anyway so it never really mattered to me.

I understand. I don't even run Sony and that shit sounded like it was bad for business. I wouldn't have done it, I don't care who cried about it. Sony never owed owners of other consoles a damn thing.

Nice sony. Shut them crossplay down! Hope sony forces devs to at least must implement an off feature on the consoles.

PlayStation has had crossplay since PS2. The PS2,PS3,Vita,PS4 and PS5 all have crossplay with PC or other PlayStation devices. Sony even named it “crossplay” and PlayStation had it for over a decade before there was crossplay between xbox and switch.

Sony may have opposed crossplay with Xbox and Nintendo, but don’t say Sony opposed crossplay in general.

Because they still helped to make crossplay a thing which is an undeniable advantage to the consumers.

sony fannyboys wank themselves silly over ps4 console sales…then wanted it left behind when their master told them lies about generations.

cows……HaH

Crossplay barely exists.

@bluestars: Ummm...what? You're making less sense then usual, and usually you're making no sense at all.

The general issue isn't with cross play but rather cross progression and, the purchasing of DLC that works across platforms.

Ex. If player A spends 9 hours a week playing Fornite on PlayStation and, 1 hour a week on Xbox, PlayStation believes they should be getting a cut of the DLC that player purchases no matter the platform because they are the main driver behind that player's engagement.

tl;dr - Someone can spend 90% of their time playing Fornite on PlayStation, purchase all of their DLC on Xbox (which will work on PlayStation) and, PlayStation won't see a single dime.

It goes both ways so I don't see what the issue is. Your scenario also doesn't make sense. Why would someone who play Fortnite 9 hours on PS purchase all of their DLCs on a system they only play 1 hour? It is so contrived.

Sony for the gamers not wanting a feature for the gamers.

Fancy that.

I am annoyed by the fact that barely any games support this must have feature for all multiplayer games. I would pay $100 for Elden Ring to have crossplay ffs.

Only scenario I can see that last bit happening is if one platform has a sale the other doesn't which I'm not sure if that actually happens often for the same game.

Still I also don't see the issue here, the "main driver" to me is the game and not the platform.

This kinda happened late last gen but I'm hopeful that the number of crossplay titles (and the %) will increase by a lot this gen.

https://kotaku.com/i-saw-the-playstation-3-wired-to-play-against-an-xbox-3-5813740?__twitter_impression=true

Idk to my knowledge Sony tried during ps3 i am assuming because of low PSN users and MS said no. During ps4 MS required an Xbox live account for cross play

It's about time people started ignoring Sony for a while so their big heads deflate back to normal size.

You wrote shareholders wrong.

No, I wrote "consumers". There I adjusted that for you, maybe take your sunglasses off when you're reading? 😛

If that happens to be a plus for shareholders then so be it and I'm not pretending like Epic was looking after my wellbeing with that decision. But the result is an absolute plus for the gamers and I'll give them props at the least for helping to make that happen.

It should say something that Nintendo, who is often stubbornly behind when it comes to online play saw the advantages of Cross Play before Sony did.

“As you know, many companies are exploring this idea and not a single one can explain how cross-console play improves the PlayStation business,” said Corsi.

PlayStation, for the businessman.

$70 dollar re-hashed games too. They really screwed their fan base this gen. I saw it coming, buncha dolts.

The example above is extreme and, not at all realistic. That's not the point.

PlayStation just wants their fair share if they represent the majority share in player engagement.

Based on the documentation:

If PlayStation represents 40% of player engagement, they expect to see at least 34% of all cross platform revenue.

Their fair share? If the player is playing on the PS the most, then the chances of making a purchase is significantly higher than the system they are playing the least on. This fair share concern is nonsensical.

@Nonstop-Madness: What fair share? Sony is not entitled to money spent outside its platform.

The chances of making a purchase are higher but, they aren't guaranteed the revenue of the purchases even though it's being used on their platform & network with a game license they gave you.

And Sony isn't required to accept or, acknowledge licenses purchased outside of their platform either.

It's only fair that they are compensated for it if they do allow it.

@Nonstop-Madness: The license for DLC comes from the developer not Sony. If Sony is being this nitpicky about revenue, they are not seeing the big and long term picture.

Its no secret there's no benefit for cross-play when you are the market world gen leader aka PS4. During PS3/Xbox 360 era MS also stopped cross-play from happening so the roles reverse this time around.

Remember that Fortnight is free to play, so Sony only makes money from the in-game transactions. From the start one of the reasons Sony didn’t want to enable cross-play was because they didn’t want people who played on a Sony system to make in-game purchases on other systems. (of which Sony would receive 0)

What the deal actually does: If the percentage of Fortnight hours played on a Sony system divided by total percentage of revenue earned by Fortnight on a Sony system was less than 0,85, Epic has to pay the difference to Sony. Now, you can argue that Sony is abusing its position, but I think having to own PS+ to play online on some games is far worse than this deal that doesn’t affect players.

As I have stated before, this goes both ways (three or four depending on the number of cross platforms). I don't see this as an issue in the slightest. It is like fighting from crumbs.

I never claimed they were, but to do so would be idiotic at that point. Among other reasons they would damage their claim at being consumer-friendly (or "for the players, by the players") as they would be blocking something that stands only to benefit their player-base. The industry is clearly moving towards cross-play and to oppose it especially at this point makes no goddamn sense.

If Sony gets to cut a deal with Epic that would allow crossplay then good for them but I still feel like Sony are in no way entitled to revenue outside PSN.

People do it because say I like to play all my games on rocket league on steam or PC and like to buy in game items and stuff on my switch while im laying down in bed an not playing seriously on PC...thats great for nintendo and horrible for pc/ps4/xbox basically. Pimping out my cars on switch and not paying anyone else any money is a bad thing for these companies i woulda made the same demands if i was one of the big guys.

#32 Edited By Pedro

Member since 2002 • 48841 Posts

@Nonstop-Madness: The license for DLC comes from the developer not Sony. If Sony is being this nitpicky about revenue, they are not seeing the big and long term picture.

@Pedro:Sorry to tell you, but any licensing is from the platform, not the dev(with very few exceptions).

This right here. It's why there was a big stink from FFXIV fans and likely the big reason Sony still has a bit of a stick up their bum on the cross-play issue with MS(they play nice with PC).

First the $450 million EGS losses, then this, and we also got word that Walmart is working on a game streaming service.

Man, this Apple vs. Epic lawsuit has been a gold mine.

I disagree due to FFXI already got crossplay between PS/Xbox/PC. Square specifically called out xbox on their practices. Square offers free trial forever up to lvl 60 but xbox then paywall F2P games until like last week. We will see what will change now.

Oh definitely, It's always cool to see how things play out behind the scenes.

That actually makes my point. MS didn't want to play nice and even though they kinda did for FFXI, that doesn't mean Sony wouldn't still have a bit of bad blood toward them. Doesn't make it right, just a thought. Would be nice to see all plats play nice with each other when a dev wants to make a cross-plat game.

Honestly, for once I agree with Pedro. Sony is tripping and this crap is scummy. The more crap that Sony pulls and the more they get exposed, the happier I am that I don't have a PS5. And I'm not getting a PS5 either because of the stuff they're pulling.

Of course, I can't cross progress, so I'll have to make a new account when I switch to PC. In that sense, Sony is sending the last middle finger to me.

Hold up a second. Last generation xbox 360 didn't want any cross play with other companies cause they were doing really well online playerbase were bigger on 360...

Now ps4 is winning and doesn't want cross play this is happened before with opposite companies at the helm.

I just explained how i play all my rocket league on PC since i can pick the controller and better framerate performance but I can buy stuff and have fun messing around on my switch in bed or wherever in around my place...thats not good for steam or whatever thats a win for platforms where your not playing on them that much is who its a win for. Sony has the biggest playerbase so they have a right to be worried right?

The licensing of developers' content is given to the platform and can be revoked at anytime.

Yes, by the dev or by the platform holder. You still buy the license from the platform holder.

Edit - The dev can still revoke your rights to the content if you break their ToS(mostly seen in online only games).

Both Microsoft and Sony were wrong at different times. Cross-play was an eventuality that both companies had to accept at some point.

As for your example; Sony may be worried but it still doesn't make them entitled. They're not the ones who made Rocket League.

It doesn't mean I have to like Sony. As a matter of fact, I don't like them for this. For me, they're the reason I'm not able to transition my progress from the PS4 to the PC. I literally lose my progress and my skins. That affects me personally, so I'm going to call them out.

However, I can see if from your POV, since you're neutral in this affair. In your POV, you see Microsoft as hypocrites because in the 360 era, they did this. For me, I don't really care about that because I never owned an Xbox 360, there I had no progress to transfer from the 360 to the PS4, to the eventual PC. I care about Sony because like I explained above.

I think some folks are confusing cross-save with cross-play.

I may be wrong, but cross-play is when you get to play with other people on various platforms. It has little to nothing to do with playing X amount of time on one platform, then swapping to another. For example, in Apex Legends the stuff I unlock on my PS4 didn't translate over to my account on PC.

Cross-save is a new term to me but it also doesn't sound like it is really that either.

This argument over Sony or MS seeing lost revenue seems kind of bogus because people aren't really going to flip flop on their platform; even if they own multiple systems, it's to play specific games and once you start playing a game on a PS4 you're pretty much going to stay on PS4 (at least for that game) for the duration you play that game.

That is correct. Continuing your progress (keeping you gear/stats/etc.) on a different platform is most commonly referred to as "cross-progress".

"Cross-save" I'm guessing is transferring your save file to another platform like with Witcher 3 on Switch/PC. Cross-save/cross-progress are almost the same in those regards.