As triple-A ‘stagnates’, QA firms turn to downloads

QA and localisation firms are generating more money from social and mobile titles than triple-A boxed games.

Several companies have told MCV they have had to expand their testing teams to cope with the strong demand for social, casual and downloadable games.

Over the last eight months or so, digital, casual and social games have been around 65 per cent of our revenue,” Testology MD Andy Robson told MCV.

What you find is that rather than having three or four big titles a week, you’re getting anything from 10 to 15 games per week from the casual and digital side.

I think it is really refreshing for the industry and some great companies have come from this development like Rovio and Mojang. I just think the triple-A sector has become very stagnant and the same ingenuity is not being experienced in new IPs.”

QA and testing firm VMC has altered its team structure because of the increased demand, while Universally Speaking has even hired extra teams.

It has increased the overall number of projects we work on at any one time,” added Universally Speaking MD Vickie Peggs. We now have additional teams dedicated to managing the smaller titles on iOS, Android and other casual and social platforms.”

Babel’s VP of sales and marketing Keith Russell said:?This sector has gone through the roof, broadly it splits into three phases – start-ups, big first successes and seasoned players.”