PlayStation's mobile aspirations are alive, well, and recruiting

• Sony are now getting serious about creating their own mobile games and pressing plans into service
• Sony are looking for someone to make them a mobile games platform from the ground up…

Just like Microsoft before them, it appears that Sony are now getting serious about creating their own mobile games and pressing plans into service following years of rumours and dabbling.

Following Xbox president Sarah Bond's chat to Bloomberg, spelling out her desire for Xbox to have a “true, cross-platform, game-centric mobile experience” and to have it all up and running by July, it seems that Sony are eager to play catch up.

Wanted: Mobile gun for hire

The news comes via a job adverisment placed the gaming giant (and spotted by Tweaktown) spelling out their need for - we quote - a mobile platform architect.

Not that surprising, and all highly encouraging marking the moment that perhaps the console gaming behemoth finally get its mobile act into gear. A mobile platform integrated with their existing console and cloud services, bringing cross play, cross progression, digital item purchases and more all together across a seamless experience sounds like a no-brainer and the sort of thing that Sony should have built years ago.

What is surprising is the level at which the role is pitched, implying that - currently - Sony hasn't a clue or the staff to go about constructing such a thing.

Be under no illusion, this is no finishing off a work in progress. Or bulking out of a in-play department. Or hiring keen deputys and team leaders. Or even scooping up specialists to facilitate the plugging in of the latest tech. No. Much like you might hire a builder to build you a house - Sony are looking for someone to make them a mobile games platform from the ground up.

No, not a shop that sells mobile games… But a mobile game development platform.

Starting from scratch

Surprisingly the ad reads: "PlayStation Studios Mobile is seeking an experienced software engineer to design PlayStation's platform for developing, publishing, and operating free-to-play mobile games. An individual in this role will spearhead the design and implementation of this platform; work in partnership with internal teams to connect mobile games to PlayStation services; and ensure that all mobile games meet PlayStation's quality standards."

So while the internal teams are all set, eagerly awaiting the arrival mobile games to plug into their existing services, the means to do so is yet to hit the drawing board.

And the ad goes further. Isolating the specific needs and expectations of the role and underscoring just how skilled the successful candidate would need to be and how important they'll become. 

Responsibilities

• Design the system architecture and backend services for the mobile games platform
• Measure and improve platform security, availability, throughput and cost efficiency
• Provide technical leadership and guidance to the platform engineering team
• Establish pipelines and processes to facilitate the delivery of high-quality software
• Collaborate across teams to integrate the platform with internal services
  Influence and contribute to the platform engineering roadmap
• Clearly communicate end-to-end system behavior to platform users and stakeholders
  Actively track technical innovations, changes, and trends affecting mobile game development

Desired Skills and Experience

• 8+ years of professional experience in the mobile games industry
• Experience as a technical leader in an enterprise setting
• Skilled communicator with both technical and non-technical audiences
• Expertise in software architecture, service design and distributed systems
• Expertise operating backend services at scale
• Experience designing APIs or related SDKs
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code, containers and Kubernetes/EKS
• Working knowledge of Unity or Unreal Engine
• Working knowledge of emerging technologies affecting mobile game development
  B.S. in Computer Science, or equivalent

All in all a big ask, and a big task.

If you've got the chops, hit that Apply Now button here.