Sony has copped some casualties of war today amidst the ongoing court proceedings between Fortnite developer Epic Games and Google.
When questioned about Fortnite’s pricing, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney tried to pass the buck to Sony. suggesting Epic was unable to provide lower prices to customers due to a clause in their contract. Sweeney claims the Fortnite creators “cannot sell out of PlayStation at a lower price than we sell on PlayStation” as a result of a Most Favored Nations (MFN) clause within their contract with Sony, as per court updates from The Verge.
An MFN clause is typically used to ensure one party can update its contract to reflect better deals offered to the other. In the case of Sony, it’s enacted to ensure players don’t flock to other platforms in search of lower prices. Sony’s MFN clause was perceived as shady by Google’s lawyers, however, Sweeney denied this perception, claiming it was a normal part of PlayStation contracts.
Sony is well known for these types of clauses within their contracts. A contract between Sony Music and Spotify previously used an MFN, featuring multiple sections allowing Sony to revisit certain elements within their contract if another company provided a better deal.
Epic’s bout with Google has been around since 2020. The search engine giants removed Fortnite from its Play Store in retaliation for Epic Games’ complaints regarding Google’s 30 percent comission in its marketplaces. This led to Sweeney launching a lawsuit, saying that he wanted “everybody to see and understand Google exercises de facto control over the availability of apps on Android.”
Epic also launched a lawsuit against Apple around the same time for similar practices. The trial ran from May 3 to May 24, 2021, but was appealed earlier this year. Epic lost all but one of the 10 counts.
