PlayStation appears to be building a backend to support its forthcoming mobile games, and has opened up new mobile roles in London, Berlin and Helsinki in recent weeks.
A job ad spotted by TweakTown and then picked up by Eurogamer, VGC and more says PlayStation is looking for a mobile platform architect who can lead its efforts 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,” the job ad continues.
The salary is listed as between $167,300—$250,900, and requires eight or more years as a technical leader in the mobile business, working knowledge of Unity, Unreal and more.
This is not the only new PlayStation mobile job ad to go live in recent weeks. It is also hiring a senior game designer and senior product manager in London, and the platform holder has had several open roles at Neon Koi, the mobile developer formerly known as Savage Game Studios, for some time.
These include level designers, producers, economy designers, environment artists, gameplay programmers and multiplayer programmers, with roles open in both Berlin and Helsinki.
As we’ve reported previously, PlayStation Mobile started hiring senior games folks in mid-2021 right through to the end of 2022, and in August of that year made its first major mobile acquisition: Savage Game Studios.
Since then, several of those leaders have departed, including former PlayStation Studios vice president and head of mobile Nicola Sebastiani, and Savage Game Studios execs Michail Katkoff and Sophie Vo. That mobile studio was also later rebranded as Neon Koi.
As we noted in November 2023, very little has come out of PlayStation Mobile since – until this recent flurry of job ads – despite then-PlayStation boss Jim Ryan telling investors that 10% of its first party releases would be on mobile by March 2023.
In February this year, PlayStation laid off around 900 staff, but its mobile arm Neon Koi was unaffected. PlayStation has some catching up to do in mobile, much like its main console rival Xbox. Microsoft said earlier this month that it is going to launch its own Xbox app store in July, after making several public statements about building a ‘gamer-first’ app store.
But as we reported earlier this week, many in the mobile business are in the dark as to what form the store will take, and also if it’ll be a viable marketplace.
