Epic lawsuit shows Sony asks publishers for compensation if MTX / playerbase ratio falls below certain amount compared to the cross-platform revenue

[eonden]

So a nice tidbit that appeared during the Epic vs Apple lawsuit:

Devs need to pay for crossplay once the Revenue Share / Gameplay Share for PSN is below 85%.

I guess we can say Sony is encouraging developers not to have crossplatform play.

 

[Xando]

Well that's fucked up

 

[LostCauseUnite!]

"HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL - ATTORNEY'S EYES ONLY"

I am now an attorney ;]

On a more serious note, that's disappointing.

 

[BananasWithGuns]

Uhh, wow, that's pretty scummy.

 

[Shinobido Heart]

I wonder if this is the reason Arc System Works said Crossplay between PSN x Steam for Guilty Gear Strive would be very difficult but not impossible.

 

[BlackheartVinyl]

That's fucked up.

And oh man, this lawsuit is gonna drop a lot of spicy nuggets.

 

[Pankratous]

What exactly does Revenue Share / Gameplay share mean? Bit confused here but I'm daft with these things.

 

[Kaiken]

Do we have anything to compare this with?

 

[Dest]

Wow that super sucks

 

[Deleted member 16876]

WTF

 

[zombiejames]

The stuff coming out of this lawsuit is eye-opening and it's just getting started.

 

[NeoRaider]

 

[Bansai]

Disgusting.

 

[Martin]

Haha wtf that seems scummy

 

[BadWolf]

Fighting games are fucked.

 

[The Real Napsta]

Wow, what else will come out?

 

[Rickenslacker]

That explains things

 

[DarkSora]

Absolutely disgusting and hurts consumers.

 

[Theorry]

Good they are getting exposed.

 

[platocplx]

I'm sure they aren't the only one doing it.

 

[Hippopuncher12]

Sony really is turning into a villain in the industry, and I hate it.

 

[NotLiquid]

I'm not surprised to learn there's some sort of fee just to be allowed cross-play, and would be less surprised if the other console makers have stipulations of their own, though I am curious how this would measure up to the competitors and whether this is part of the reason Sony's been slower on the pickup since these seem like some very tough stipulations.

 

[OhSatan]

I thought we new this but nice to see it out in the open.

 

[Nikokuno]

Pure disgrace right there. 'For the players' they said.

 

[Cess007]

Good things are already coming out of this Apple vs Epic battle

 

[mtel]

What exactly does Revenue Share / Gameplay share mean? Bit confused here but I'm daft with these things.

Click to shrink...

So the calculation is designed to measure if Sony's proportion of customers is significantly larger than the share of revenue users are generating on PS.

When crossplay was not yet happening, the argument (though one not voiced) on Sony's side was that users could purchase skins/DLC without them taking their cut if you buy on other platforms. This is designed to mitigate this by devs having to pay Sony if the majority of purchases happen on other platforms but the majority of players are on PS.

 

[LostCauseUnite!]

I wonder if it is like this for the other platforms as well

 

[Deleted member 9584]

Am I reading this right? If a game has cross play and is less popular on PS4 compared to other systems, the devs have to pay Sony a fee?

 

[bsigg]

I guess we know the reason for the hesitancy of publishers/developers to support crossplay on PS now.

 

[Kalor]

What exactly does Revenue Share / Gameplay share mean? Bit confused here but I'm daft with these things.

Click to shrink...

Basically Sony wants most of the overall revenue for a multiplayer game to come from Playstation platforms if it has crossplay. If that percentage drops below 85%, Sony want some money.

 

[Winnie]

What a ton of shit, jesus.

 

[DSN2K]

wow that is something. Wonder how much Sony are making off likes of Call of Duty and Fortnite every month.

 

[GTAce]

Oh Sony. 🤦‍♂️

 

[LinkStrikesBack]

What exactly does Revenue Share / Gameplay share mean? Bit confused here but I'm daft with these things.

Click to shrink...

It's about how much revenue is made through the playstation platform and how much gameplay is performed on the playstation platform for the title.

The implication is if the ratio of the two is less than 0.85, i.e. there is a disproportionate difference between where the people play and where they spend money, e.g. if for some reason the audience on ps5 for Fortnite or whatever is mostly f2p, but somehow the audience on switch is much more likely to spend money, then the Devs have to pay Sony to make up for the fact that Sony thinks they are missing out.

 

[J-Soul]

"to offset the reduction in revenue" What reduction??? Who is not buying a game because it has crossplay???

 

[Xando]

Am I reading this right? If a game has cross play and is less popular on PS4 compared to other systems, the devs have to pay Sony a fee?

Click to shrink...

Yes

 

[Kinthey]

Messed up

 

[Deleted member 84058]

They dragged their heels on crossplay to begin with. Looks like they wanted to make sure they got something out of it before allowing it.

 

[SunshinePuppies]

I wonder if this is the reason Arc System Works said Crossplay between PSN x Steam for Guilty Gear Strive would be very difficult but not impossible.

Click to shrink...

maybe they're waiting to see if they hit a certain target sale number?

 

[Z-Brownie]

wow ... just, wow ...

 

[Schlorgan]

 

[Deleted member 46948]

What exactly does Revenue Share / Gameplay share mean? Bit confused here but I'm daft with these things.

Click to shrink...

It's explained in the picture.
Any month where people buy less things for the game on PSN than on other platforms, comparatively, if I understand it correctly.

Edit: "comparatively" in this case means compared to the ratio of gameplay / revenue on other platforms

 

[Charpunk]

This whole thing is fucked

 

[Bio Booster Armoire]

Give with one hand and take away with the other.

 

[dude]

This is pure bullshit, OMG

 

[Deleted member 27647]

Terrible. No wonder so many devs opt out of providing crossplay support. So much for "4 the Players"...

 

[Uzupedro]

wow that is something. Wonder how much Sony are making off likes of Call of Duty and Fortnite every month.

Click to shrink...

Nothing since those games will probably be above the 0.85 they ask for.

 

[Raftina]

The more I hear about the Epic vs Apple lawsuit, the more I think it is a good thing that Epic sued Apple...

What exactly does Revenue Share / Gameplay share mean? Bit confused here but I'm daft with these things.

Click to shrink...

The numerator is revenue from PSN divided by all revenue.
The denominator is gameplay hours on PS4 divided by all gameplay hours.

In other words, the developer/publisher would need to pay Sony a royalty if PS4 players' spending on a game is unusually low compared to other platforms or PS4 players' play time is unusually high compare to other forms.

For example:
Let's say the developer gets $90 from PSN and $100 everywhere. The players play 180 hours on PS4 and 200 hours everywhere. The ratio is (90/100)/(180/200)=0.9/0.9=1, so no royalty.

Now let's say the developer gets $50 from PSN and $100 everywhere. The players play 180 hours on PS4 and 200 hours everywhere. The ratio is (50/100)/(180/200)=0.5/0.9=0.56, so the developer must pay a royalty.

Now let's say the developer gets $10 from PSN and $100 everywhere. The players play 20 hours on PS4 and 200 hours everywhere. The ratio is (10/100)/(20/200)=0.1/0.1=1, so no royalty. This is because despite the PS4 platform being only 10% of the revenue, it is also only 10% of the play time.

 

[cowbanana]

For the Payers!

Sony can be so infuriatingly shit at times.

 

[.exe]

I love that this case has everyone airing their laundry.