In the increasingly common trend of adding cross-play to every multiplayer game, Sony is the only major company that has dragged its feet in supporting the popular feature. This was most notably captured by Microsoft, which now enjoys telling everyone how much it loves cross-play and how it hopes Sony loves it as much.

Thanks to recent court documents, the reason for Sony's unease is clear. Documents released as part of the ongoing Epic v. Apple litigation matter reveal that Sony's cross-play compliance includes special royalties that game publishers must pay. Essentially, Sony wants to ensure that PlayStation players do not end up spending money on other platforms while still relying on Sony's servers/infrastructure to actually play the game.

Perhaps it was this demand for reduced revenue that prompted the announcement last month that "Borderlands 3" would support cross-play on non-PlayStation platforms. This was a fairly public call from Sony, and its status remains unclear.

Despite the unusual royalty policy, Playstation CEO Jim Ryan recently told Axios that Playstation hopes to support cross-play in more games in the future. We support and encourage cross-play," Ryan said, citing various titles that currently support the feature, as well as titles such as "Destiny 2," which will be introduced soon. That number, he added, "will continue to grow."

Asked about last month's snub from Gearbox, Ryan said he did not want to discuss "live business issues with longtime partners," but added that "our policy is consistent across all publishers."