Sony Seeks New Game Testers

This week saw the return of Sony's reality television show, The Tester, which pits aspiring game testers against each other in contests until only one remains, with the champion of the contest earning a position as one of Sony's very own internal game testers. The first season of The Tester was far from critically acclaimed, but it did prove to be a big hit among viewers. Season two of the show promises even more drama, viewer contests, and bigger and better challenges for the would-be game testers. Sony has also promised a larger judging panel, and has already secured several notable names in the fields of game development and Game Design as guest panellists. Some of the names already confirmed include Stig Asmussen, the game director of God of War 3, and Medal of Honor's executive producer Greg Goodrich. The winner of The Tester receives the opportunity to work as one of Sony's Game Testers in their San Diego studio, and will also receive a signing bonus, as well as a selection of other prizes. Sony is enthusiastic that, unlike many reality television game shows, they are actually offering the winner of the show a great opportunity to jump-start a career in the gaming industry. Season One's winner, Will “Cyrus” Powers, has already managed to climb a little further up the corporate ladder, and after a short stint as one of Sony's game testers, he is now employed in Sony's PR team. Winning, or even simply appearing on, the show could help give contestants access to a career in the gaming industry! Game testers are often seen as low-ranking employees in the gaming industry, but in reality they are a very integral part of the game development process; game testers act as quality control for new video games, and the primary function of game testers is to discover/document any software defects or bugs that may be found in the game. These may include glitches that cause the game to crash, can cause viruses, or in some way render the game unplayable. These types of bugs must be corrected before a game is released. Therefore, a quality game tester not only needs to be passionate about his/her work, but he/she also needs to possess a fair amount of computing expertise, and have a discerning eye for detail. However, game testers may also note minor flaws which will not negatively affect the gaming experience, but still need to be fixed. On such occasions, the Game Development team would weigh up the pros and cons of fixing these bugs prior to release, and then determine if the issue needs to be addressed prior to release, or if a patch can be issued to fix the bug at a later date. The moderate success of The Tester has prompted Sony to speculate that they would like to develop new and entertaining content for Playstation Network in a bid to rival premium TV channels such as HBO and Showtime. However, this is a long-term project, and according to Sony it will be at least five years before any progress is made.