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"It’s a great time to be in our business, on the cusp of a new ecosystem for delivering content, and it’s a great time for games – download, mobile and online avenues are all widening the consumption base in games and QA companies can only welcome that."
- Alastair Harsant, Testronic Labs
Testronic Labs' Games Business Line Manager Alastair Harsant was invited to be part of an industry roundtable on games QA and localisation for Develop Magazine - discussing new developments in the games marketplace and their impact on QA businesses.
Highlights from the interview are below, or read the full roundtable discussion here:
Have you seen more demand for simultaneous worldwide releases in the past year? How do these affect the QA and localisation process?
On the face of it, working on multiple SKUs across platforms simultaneously increases scheduling, coordinating and resourcing needs due to volume. However, working on all languages at the same time gives volume throughput. Compared to staggering the work, we find that the volume, simultaneous approach can lead to great efficiencies.
There is also the potential for day and date film/game tie-ins to become the norm; an extension of simultaneous release of a game worldwide. A QA provider with skills across content types and delivery channels with a pedigree in software testing can provide QA across film, game and marketing websites. The approach of using one outsource company for multiple disciplines gives not only time/cost efficiencies but also allows consistency in process and standards – safeguarding brand identity and the all-important consumer experience across diverse consumption channels.
Has the widespread adoption of downloadable content affected the length and practices involved in QA and localisation? Is it a lucrative extra source of revenue for you?
With more XBLA, PSN, iPhone titles, along with DLC, the testing landscape has changed somewhat. Generally the time spent per project has decreased in this context, but the regularity of builds has increased. Having the operational agility to deploy teams at short notice to carry out testing is crucial. This type of work, compared to major console disc releases, is becoming a key part of our revenue – and will only continue to increase.
The move to downloadable content from boxed product is a key trend in all entertainment markets, and as a QA provider working across the digital media spectrum it’s essential to our business that our knowledge and processes are vanguard in download technologies. Our long-running games business is in console disc releases, but our overall business model, with software/hardware testing divisions alongside games and film, means that
we’re excited about the acceleration towards download.
It’s a great time to be in our business, on the cusp of a new ecosystem for delivering content, and it’s a great time for games – download, mobile and online avenues are all widening the consumption base in games and QA companies can only welcome that.
Talk to Testronic Labs about QA services for your game.