Fanning the embers of last week's Fortnite (PS4) cross-play controversy, in which PlayStation players are the only group that cannot use their Epic account on other systems, a former internal studio boss has taken to Twitter to suggest that it really is all about the money. Sony's position on Fortnite baffled Kinda Funny's Greg Miller, which prompted John Smedley to respond in a tweet that was later removed:
"... when I was at Sony, the stated reason internally for this was money. They didn't like someone buying something on an Xbox and it being used on a Playstation. simple as that. dumb reason, but there it is."
While it seems obvious that Sony's cross-play position isn't a technical issue (thank to an internal error at Epic, PlayStation and Xbox players were briefly able to play Fortnite together months ago), there was still a glimmer of a possibility that this was all about player security and safety. Smedley's tweet seems to suggest otherwise.
However, as with all things on Twitter, we should take this proclamation with a generous pinch of salt. Smedley left his studio Daybreak Game Company LLC back in 2015, which had been renamed from Sony Online Entertainment and spun off from Sony to an independent investor earlier the same year. So Smedley's internal knowledge of Sony ends well before Fortnite and its particular cross-play controversy came to the fore.
Whatever the reasons, it seems that the conversation is going to spark rumours and debate until Sony choose to make a more declarative statement than the last one.