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Babel Media Beta Testing Service

15th October 2003, 9:40pm
Babel Media has launched an online beta testing service - Planet Testing - in response to the emerging online games sector. The service will fully launch Q1 2004 although Babel is already testing two online PC titles with one top five publisher.

According to a recent report by DFC Intelligence, the number of online global gamers will treble to 40 million by 2006, yet publishers face fresh challenges - online games need extensive compatibility testing across all ISPs, hardware and territories. Consquently, costs will be prohibitive for publishers who will need to use an unconventional QA model and recruit vast teams of global testers.

Babel's Planet Testing means publishers can outsource this expensive aspect of their online games offering. The company's volunteer teams in Europe, the US and Asia-Pacific, combined with its team of experiened testers in the UK and India can scale testing to provide a 'real world' test scenario before a title is released. Babel is also considering solutions to provide an effective test compatibility scenario.

Ben Wibberley, Babel's Business Development Director said: "Our online QA service, twinned with the vast experience of our other QA and localisation divisions, make this a cost-effective solution for our clients. We've been planning this for more than two years, but it's only been with the recent take-up of online multiplayer gaming on PC, console and wireless that makes this the perfect time for us to launch the service."

Both console gaming and PC gaming are undergoing a boom as the major players ramp up their on-going presence in the online space. In the past month, EA, Sony and Microsoft have all launched console online-enabled sports games in addition to their military-themed or combat-oriented titles.
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by Benjamin Murphy