It appears that Sony has plans to accelerate its mobile expansion. The Japanese company currently has its own mobile platform in development.
According to a new job listing (spotted by TweakTown), Sony is now looking for a mobile platform architect to “design PlayStation’s platform for developing, publishing, and operating free-to-play mobile games.”
A person in this position will be responsible for building the system architecture and backend services for the unannounced mobile games platform, as well integrating it with internal services and tracking “technical innovations, changes, and trends affecting mobile game development.” They should have, among other things, over eight years of experience in the mobile games industry and working knowledge of working with Unity or Unreal Engine.
The job description also implies that an individual in this position will “work in partnership with internal teams to connect mobile games to PlayStation services and ensure that all mobile games meet PlayStation’s quality standard.”
It is unclear whether Sony will launch its own mobile store or build a proprietary platform for developing and operating its titles distributed through already established storefronts such as the App Store and Google Play.
Sony first announced its plans to bring more of its core IPs to mobile in May 2021. The company also expects its PC and mobile titles to account for around 50% of its first-party portfolio by FY25 (ending March 31, 2026).
Earlier this week, Xbox president Sarah Bond announced that Microsoft will launch its own mobile store in July. She didn’t go into detail, other than to say that the company plans to create a “true cross-platform gaming centric mobile experience.” The upcoming store will feature Xbox’s first-party games such as Candy Crush and Minecraft, with titles from third-party developers coming later.
Despite resistance from Apple, Epic Games also plans to launch the Epic Games Store on iOS in Europe later this year. So more and more major game companies are now eyeing mobile expansion, especially with the recent Digital Markets Act enforcing Apple to open up iOS to third-party stores.