Sony San Diego to Work on One or More Free to Play Games

Giuseppe Nelva January 20, 2014 2:50 PM EST

Sony Computer Entertainment President and CEO Andrew House mentioned multiple times that Sony was very interested in the free to play market, and apparently that interest is strong enough to dedicate at least part of one of its first party studios to the development of free to play games. It was revealed today by a career opportunity ad seeking a Design Manager for the Sony San Diego studio.

Sony San Diego has an exciting opportunity for a Design Manager! The ideal candidate will be proficient in all aspects of Game Design and have extensive experience with Free to Play and Live Game design support. Experience with leading and mentoring other designers is a must. The candidate will have three successfully shipped games and at least one commercially successful title in the Free to Play market. They will also be able to demonstrate their contribution to design and implantation in the titles they have shipped. Own, drive, and communicate the vision for major design initiatives of one or more games and relaying that vision to the internal and external members of the development team. * Maintaining the game design vision during all phases of the product development cycle from concept through implementation.

* Producing game play content in the game production phase of one or more products.

* Designing any element of one or more assigned games.

* Reviewing and evaluating product concepts and designs for acquisition.

* Reviewing and evaluating competitive products.

* Creating and presenting new game concepts for development as needed.

* Assisting the development team in identifying and creating techniques, structures and tools used to guide and encourage the evolution of game design within the studio.

* Maintaining and enhancing creative relationships with inside and outside developers.

* Skill improvement and training of direct reports.

* Providing guidance and information to assist in the resolution of complex problems.

The focus of the post on free to play experience is quite a telltale of what kind of games the candidate is going to primarily work on.

So far, Sony San Diego’s main undertaking has been the MLB: The Show series, but the studio has also worked on multiple smaller PSN titles. A baseball game could probably adapt quite well to the free to play model, but we’ll have to wait for further information in order to know what kind of free to play experiences the studio has in store for us.