Sony is reportedly at work on building the “next generation PlayStation backbone”.

Sony’s online services, especially for PlayStation products, have often come under criticism when compared to their competitors. With the service going down every now and then plus random slowdowns among other problems, fans have been long waiting for improvements. A few months back it was rumored that Sony was working on a PSN upgrade to go with the release of the Playstation 5, now a new hiring by the Japanese tech giant could very well hint at the upgrade.

The hint comes from a recent posting for a Sr. Network Operations Engineer (NetDevOps) for for Playstation’s Aliso Viejo offices in California.

The Aliso Viejo offices mainly work on PSN related services including the PS Store, PS Video, PS Vue, PS Music and PS Now. They’re currently hiring for multiple positions to work on these services.

Another hiring, this time for a Staff Software Engineer for the San Diego PlayStation offices, further talks about the company working on a “next generation data platform” for the Playstation Network.

Sony confirmed the much requested PSN Online ID change functionality a few months ago with the service expected to launch officially in Early 2019. The feature could be the first of many upgrades planned for the new PSN.

The next-generation Xbox console and PS5 are just around the corner with many analysts predicting Microsoft and Sony to reveal or at least announce their new consoles later this year.

Sony specifically has teased the next PlayStation multiple times recently with them already hiring for a “next-generation Playstation” as well announcing that they’re skipping E3 this year which many predict is because they’re planning a full blown dedicated event for their new console. The PS5 was also named in a Square Enix developer resume as a platform they’re developing a AAA title for.

The PSN is certainly way past due an upgrade and we’re really looking forward to what Sony can muster up.

What’s your most requested feature or improvement from the next-gen PlayStation Network? Let us know in the comments below.