Sony Computer Entertainment America is looking for a new Online Gameplay Programmer for their Santa Monica studio. Might you fit the bill? A Kotaku reader discovered the job posting at the official SCEA website, and now the internet is abuzz with the rumor that God of War III will feature online play.
The simple facts are as follows:
1.) The posting is indeed for the Santa Monica studio, which has a history of producing very little other than the high-profile God of War series, Kinetica being one notable exception.
2.) God of War III has been confirmed, and Joystiq points out that former series director Cory Barlog had considered co-op play before his departure.
3.) Whatever this programmer might be working on, it involves a serious multiplayer component, detailed enough that they're considering in-game commerce:
-Interact with gameplay programmers to make existing and new code support desired network functionality (including networking of gameplay state, lobbying, commerce, chat, security, and similar).
However:
4.) SCE Santa Monica was also heavily involved in the production of a game that would line up perfectly with the job posting: the online-only Warhawk, replete with lobbies, Bluetooth voice chat and more.
And that's without even considering how you'd go about making an online God of War in the first place. Forget co-op: if we're talking lobbies, commerce, chat and security, there must be something a little more massive going on behind the scenes... and for a game driven by story and populated by a limited pantheon of mythical gods and beasts, an MMO is out of the question. What then, a squad-based slasher? Deathmatch? An RTS? God of War just doesn't lend itself to online play.
I'd love to be proven wrong, but for now, Occam's razor points to Warhawk 2.
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