Sophia Michaels
There was no question that Travis Scott’s groundbreaking Fortnite performance would kick the music industry’s interest in video games into high gear — and a spate of new job listings in the last week seems to already support that claim. In the last week, major label and publishing group Sony Music has put up listings for a Game Level Designer, a User Interface (UI) Designer, and an Unreal Engine Generalist, the last of which focuses specifically on a 3D creation platform developed by Fortnite’s parent company Epic Games.
And the qualifications are no joke. For starters, requirements for being a Game Level Designer include five years of professional game design/development experience, a minimum of two shipped AAA game titles (translation: high-quality, blockbuster games), and virtual reality experience, as well as “expert knowledge” of Unreal Engine 4, Blueprint system and text-based scripting languages. Meanwhile, the Unreal Engine Generalist must have five years of experience developing and optimizing real-time experiences in Unreal Engine 4, 3D modeling experience, texturing experience and the ability to code and architect various core engine systems, as well as overall knowledge of game design processes, including gamification strategies and methods.
What does this mean, though? “We need you to bring your vision and passion to a team dedicated to reimagining music through immersive media,” reads the Unreal Engine Generalist listing. “Leveraging Sony Music’s vast catalog and roster of artists, the Unreal Engine Generalist will design and implement a new category of music experiences which utilize the latest game engine-based software and tools.” But it doesn’t get much more detailed than that — and the idea of “a new category of music experiences” seems to be all the rage in the concert-less quarantine era.
Representatives from Sony Music declined to comment when Rolling Stone reached out for more details.
It’s probably safe to assume that Sony Corporation’s Playstation ownership doesn’t hurt Sony Music’s chances of doing well in this corner of the entertainment industry. As for Scott, it’s worth noting that the “Astroworld” star is signed to one of Sony Music’s record labels, Epic Records. (No relation to Epic Games — but the coincidence is fitting.)
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