Tim Sweeney: We were willing to sue Sony for cross-play | Epic vs Google
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As Epic's antitrust trial against Google continues, the former's CEO Tim Sweeney has revealed the campaign to open PlayStation to cross-play could have led to legal action.
Epic Games was one of many developers calling for Sony to enable gamers to play multiplayer matches against people on other platforms, with other advocates include the teams behind Rocket League and Ark: Survival Evolved.
Sony repeatedly shot down this suggestion but finally relented in September 2018.
With open platforms being a key discussion point of the Epic vs Google trial, a San Francisco courthouse heard on Monday heard how far the Fortnite firm planned to go to support the push for cross-play, The Verge reported.
"We were willing to fight them in court in necessary," Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said during his time on the witness stand.
The conversation revolved around a June 2018 email Sweeney sent to Phil Rosenberg, then PlayStation's senior vice president and head of global publisher and developer relations.
The email read: "Please inform Kodera-san, and please be clear, that Epic will enable full interoperability between all platforms in Fortnite at a timely point in the future ... we are prepared to pursue this course with all available resources, wherever it leads us, and for however long."
After this discussion, the court proceedings moved on with Sweeney noting that Sony and Epic have worked much closer together since then. For example, Sony Music has partnered on Fortnite events, Sony Pictures uses the Unreal Engine for some of its productions, and Sony Corporation has become a shareholder in Epic Games.
On the subject of shareholders, Sweeney was questioned
Read more on gamesindustry.biz
