Quality assurance, also called QA or testing, is a team within a studio or publisher that tests builds. The kind of testing that quality assurance teams perform varies wildly depending on the situation, from gameplay feedback to pure functionality testing. Some companies consider quality assurance to be an integral part of the process, whereas others treat their testing departments as essentially bug-hunters and nothing more.
Quality assurance is often a contract role, with testers retained for short periods, particularly at publishers. It is also commonly considered an apprentice-level role as a stepping stone into design, production or sometimes even programming. Many game developers have done 'their time in the testing mines' before moving on to some more creative roles.
Recently the practise of using open betas (where the game is released to the public to do the testing for them) and test-driven development (where testing functionality is automated) has called into question the need for testers, especially in small studios. This has led to freelance quality assurance companies who perform the function on contract to a studio rather than in-house.
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