Sony job ad suggests PSN voice chat rebuild could be underway – WGB

Sony may be cooking up one thing new behind the scenes for PlayStation Community’s voice chat, if a recent job listing is anything to go by.

Noticed on PlayStation’s official careers web site, the advert is on the lookout for a server-side engineer to work particularly on PSN voice chat options.

The itemizing talks about designing and constructing a “new server structure”, alongside taking a mission “from proof of idea to productization.”. That’s the type of language you don’t sometimes see if a staff is simply sustaining what’s already there—it suggests one thing a bit extra concerned is within the works.

There’s additionally a transparent concentrate on scale. Within the itemizing, PSN is described as a service with “greater than 100 million month-to-month lively accounts”. And it looks like no matter Sony is planning extends to PC as properly, as a result of the “new server structure” they’re launching will be a “multi-platform rollout throughout console, PC, and cellular.”

In different phrases, no matter that is, it doesn’t sound prefer it’s being constructed with simply the PS5 in thoughts. This seems to be extra like a system meant to stretch throughout all the PlayStation ecosystem, which is additional attention-grabbing as a result of recent rumours have suggest Sony is pulling back from PC support, not less than for its singleplayer titles.

The function itself sits inside a real-time communications atmosphere, with all the same old buzzwords—low latency, excessive reliability, world scale—however on this context, it reinforces the concept that we’re taking a look at correct infrastructure work relatively than a minor tweak or function replace.

In fact, it’s value conserving expectations in verify. A job itemizing isn’t affirmation of something, and Sony hasn’t introduced any type of new voice chat system publicly. This might nonetheless find yourself being an inner improve that gamers barely discover.

Nonetheless, between the mentions of latest structure and cross-platform ambitions, it does really feel like greater than routine upkeep. If Sony is transforming the backend right here, it might be a part of a wider push to modernise how communication works throughout its platforms—one thing the business as a complete has been drifting towards for some time now. Or might be a part of even bigger modifications as Sony slowly builds towards launching it’s next-gen console within the subsequent couple of years

For now, although, that is very a lot in “attention-grabbing trace” territory relatively than onerous affirmation. However when an organization the dimensions of Sony begins hiring for this type of work on a core service like PSN, it’s often value paying consideration.