Do You Really Make Money Playing Games All Day?..."You Really Do" [New Jobs]

'Game Tester' Alongside the Gaming Industry
Investment in QA Has Only Recently Occurred
QA Companies Emerged as Mobile Games Expanded

Editor's NoteWith super-aging and ultra-low birth rates, coupled with the advent of the artificial intelligence (AI) era, new changes are occurring in the world of occupations. We introduce the world of new jobs that open paths for new challenges in working life or a second act in life, known as 'New Jobs.'

Jobs that involve playing games all day while earning money already exist. Professional gamers belonging to eSports teams have risen to the ranks of 'professional' athletes by competing in international tournaments and winning prize money, and numerous programmers, designers, and planners working in the game development industry also play their own games countless times every day.

However, those working in the game industry are only responsible for verifying games as 'products.' There is also a job where the main task is to enjoy various games. This is the game Quality Assurance (QA) service.

Testers Who Have Shared the History of the Game Industry

Those who test the quality of a program before a game is released are called game testers or quality assurance specialists (QA). [Image source=Pixabay]

Just as almost all products sold to consumers undergo quality control processes, games naturally go through QA. Game QA involves playing the nearly finished game first, then reporting any inconveniences, bugs, or deficiencies to the developers. Through QA, a game is finally completed as a 'product' and can be delivered to consumers with stable quality.

QA has paralleled the history of the game industry. Ironically, however, QA has only recently been recognized as a legitimate 'profession.' In the late 20th century, when video games were just beginning to emerge, the concept of QA did not exist, and even in the early 21st century, investment in QA was very limited. It was common for game development teams to play games in their spare time and perform QA 'incidentally.'

But as the game industry grew in scale and the number of personnel increased exponentially, it became impossible to release games without strict QA. Recently, large-scale games involve 200 to 400 people, and some ultra-large studios employ over 1,000 people, making it impossible to control uniform software quality during development.

Potential Revenue Lost by a Famous Game Brand Due to Negligent Quality Control.
[Image Source=Ukrainian QA Specialist Company 'QAWERK' Homepage]

There have been cases where neglecting the QA process led to crises. The popular city-building simulation game 'SimCity (2013)' faced consumer backlash due to unresolved server issues, and the open-world game 'Cyberpunk,' released in 2020, is estimated to have lost about $1 billion in potential revenue due to failure to address deficiencies in time.

With the Rise of the Mobile Era, Becoming a Profession Closer to 'Engineer'

Recently, game QA is treated as a formal part of the game development process rather than a side task. As the QA process itself has become too complex, game companies increasingly outsource it to other firms. There are now even game companies specializing exclusively in QA.

However, game QA has become somewhat distant from pure 'gameplay.' Nowadays, many games are played on smartphones rather than PCs or gaming consoles, and for smartphone games, 'rapid testing' and 'optimization' have become more important than anything else.

In other words, rather than meticulously playing games to identify areas for improvement, the role has evolved into that of a test engineer who completes operational tests within the time customers expect and verifies that the game application (app) performs stably within the operating environment.