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  • Subject: Bungie's QA Team
Subject: Bungie's QA Team
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I'm curious, does Bungie hire a third party QA team or it's mainly Bungie employs and contractors doing the work? Out there many big and small studios get help from a third party QA team.

  • 06.17.2012 7:18 AM PDT

Key

QA?

  • 06.17.2012 7:21 AM PDT
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Quality Assurance. It's the process where the game is tested and one of the most crucial and important points into the current industry landscape.
Posted by: CrazzySnipe55
QA?

  • 06.17.2012 7:23 AM PDT

Key

Hmm... I never actually thought about that. I mean it's easy to give a speculative answer about how Bungie makes games they like to play so they probably will do it all in house with their own people but obvious game testing isn't casually playing trough a game to see if you like it. It's rigorously playing through one part of one level looking for bugs and, as weird as it is to say it, it takes someone who knows what they're doing (if not a professional). So it's very likely that they could outsource it.
Posted by: DarkONI
Quality Assurance. It's the process where the game is tested and one of the most crucial and important points into the current industry landscape.
Posted by: CrazzySnipe55
QA?

  • 06.17.2012 7:49 AM PDT
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I know what QA is and what it does. That's why I'm curious whether Bungie uses a third party or not -- testing a game, especially a triple-A title is rigorous some studios even went as far and have whole departments for QA. (Lionhead)

Edit: Don't get me wrong, I don't want to be involved with QA, it's spontaneous curiosity that led me to create this thread, nothing else.
Posted by: CrazzySnipe55
Hmm... I never actually thought about that. I mean it's easy to give a speculative answer about how Bungie makes games they like to play so they probably will do it all in house with their own people but obvious game testing isn't casually playing trough a game to see if you like it. It's rigorously playing through one part of one level looking for bugs and, as weird as it is to say it, it takes someone who knows what they're doing (if not a professional). So it's very likely that they could outsource it.


[Edited on 06.17.2012 7:54 AM PDT]

  • 06.17.2012 7:52 AM PDT

I could be wrong but I think they use contractors to test.

EDIT: I can't find a source for this, but I think it may have been mentioned on the Halo 3 Legendary Edition.

[Edited on 06.17.2012 8:09 AM PDT]

  • 06.17.2012 8:05 AM PDT

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Posted by: antony X1000
I could be wrong but I think they use contractors to test.

EDIT: I can't find a source for this, but I think it may have been mentioned on the Halo 3 Legendary Edition.
I remember a video where they were getting people to test Halo 3, and they were getting frustrated by how they were getting lost when they thought they had made it clear where to go. So, by the sounds of it, it's third party.

  • 06.17.2012 8:34 AM PDT
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I wonder if they have the same approach with Destiny.
Posted by: Dropship dude
I remember a video where they were getting people to test Halo 3, and they were getting frustrated by how they were getting lost when they thought they had made it clear where to go. So, by the sounds of it, it's third party.

  • 06.17.2012 9:09 AM PDT

Key

I'm sure you do know what QA is (I didn't until an hour or so ago), I was more just thinking aloud to attempt to reason with myself about whether or not they would do it third or first party.
Posted by: DarkONI
I know what QA is and what it does. That's why I'm curious whether Bungie uses a third party or not -- testing a game, especially a triple-A title is rigorous some studios even went as far and have whole departments for QA. (Lionhead)

Edit: Don't get me wrong, I don't want to be involved with QA, it's spontaneous curiosity that led me to create this thread, nothing else.
Posted by: CrazzySnipe55
Hmm... I never actually thought about that. I mean it's easy to give a speculative answer about how Bungie makes games they like to play so they probably will do it all in house with their own people but obvious game testing isn't casually playing trough a game to see if you like it. It's rigorously playing through one part of one level looking for bugs and, as weird as it is to say it, it takes someone who knows what they're doing (if not a professional). So it's very likely that they could outsource it.

  • 06.17.2012 9:18 AM PDT
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Well, the easy way to answer this would be to look at the jobs page, and see whether they are hiring for people to do testing.

In addition, one would assume that they bring in contractors as and when they need extra hands on a short term basis.

  • 06.17.2012 9:25 AM PDT

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I always thought that only Bungie and a select few players who're trusted into secrecy can test the games.

  • 06.17.2012 9:39 AM PDT
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Yes they do. Aside from having their own QA team and having the employees themselves test the game they need an outside QA team to test builds. They also get respected fans to test games too. Usually these testers who don't work at the studio have to sign the NDA, therefore, they can't even confirm that they were at Bungie.

The Bungie Beta sign-up plays a similar role.

  • 06.17.2012 10:10 AM PDT

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Don't they list them in the credits?

Might want to check those.

Edit: These maybe?

[Edited on 06.17.2012 10:30 AM PDT]

  • 06.17.2012 10:26 AM PDT

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It's mixed.

They have a dedicated in-house test team. All employees usually participate in test sessions and take-home tests from time to time as well.

I know under MS, towards the end of development, they had builds released across a lot of the company (several thousand people). Not sure what the situation is like with Activision but I imagine they will have similar resources available when Bungie wants it.

  • 06.17.2012 10:34 AM PDT

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Posted by: RC Master
It's mixed.

They have a dedicated in-house test team. All employees usually participate in test sessions and take-home tests from time to time as well.

I know under MS, towards the end of development, they had builds released across a lot of the company (several thousand people). Not sure what the situation is like with Activision but I imagine they will have similar resources available when Bungie wants it.
Don't they require contractors overseas anyway to test that the matchmaking system doesn't implode when you play internationally?

  • 06.17.2012 10:40 AM PDT