Interactive entertainment software testing is a highly technical field requiring computing expertise, analytic competence, critical evaluation skills, and endurance.
[4][5] In recent years the field of game testing has come under fire for being extremely strenuous and unrewarding, both financially and emotionally.
Most publishers employ a large QA staff for testing various games from different developers.
They must be able to notate and reference any problems they find in detailed reports, meet deadlines with assignments and have the skill level to complete the game titles on their most difficult settings.
[5] In contrast, game testing is highly focused on finding bugs using established and often tedious methodologies before alpha version.
High-profile commercial games are professionally and efficiently tested by publisher QA department.
[9] Early in the game development process the testing team is small and focuses on daily feedback for new code.
As the game approaches alpha stage, more team members are employed and test plans are written.
As the projects enters beta stage, the testing team will have clear assignments for each day.
[5] If a video game development enters crunch time before a deadline, the game-test team is required to test late-added features and content without delay.
[citation needed] One example of sustained crunch, especially among the QA team, was at Treyarch during the development of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.
Game testers most often require experience however occasionally only a high school diploma and with no technical expertise, suffice.
[3][20] QA résumés, which display non-technical skill sets, tend towards management, than to marketing or production.
The main difference from consumer units is the ability to load games from a burned disc, USB stick, or hard drive.
This functionality is not present in consumer units to combat software piracy and grey-market imports.