Quality Assurance In The Games Industry

Thanks to NTSC-uk for their opinion piece discussing the perceived lack of 'quality assurance' in the videogame industry. Amid oft-repeated claims that "many games fall short of the mark" on overall quality, there are some more interesting arguments that QA testing "rarely promotes the criticism and fine-tuning of the most important aspect of design - gameplay." The author even goes on to suggest that hardware manufacturers should again get more involved in the quality of games on their machine: "Nintendo demonstrated during the 80s and early 90s how the power of the manufacturer can be used... to ensure that the design of new games, and particularly good gameplay, was top of the agenda - hence Nintendo's 'Seal of Quality'."

Comments

Blame the talking heads.

[MImeKillEr]

As someone who works in software QA, all I can say is thus:

If QA has the ability to block the release of something due to defects then this is an almost absolute way to ensure quality (other factors notwithstanding).

If QA doesn't have to give their seal of approval before something goes out the door, then things will be released with defects (some known, others not).

I was fortunate enough to work for a boss who stated to development and the project managers that he would not sign off on releases simply to meet deadlines. If the powers that be wanted something shoved out the door simply to meet customer expecations, they'd do so without QAs consent - and that we'd not take the blame.