Prospective QA manager shuns Sony practices, Microsoft too
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ Nov 29th 2006 at 7:55PM }
Sparked by uproar over a "game-killing" bug in Genji, Ritual Entertainment QA manager Michael Russell recalls a job interview for FPQA Manager, held at Sony's San Diego offices. There he caught a glimpse of Sony's QA process, which, according to Russell, "allows creativity to squash quality" -- he promptly removed himself from consideration for the job.Before Ritual, Russell was a lead tester at Microsoft Game Studios. He claims his previous employer is also failing at quality assurance, but from the other end of the spectrum: "At Microsoft, the stringent QA processes often strangle creativity."
Russell calls for some middle ground to be walked, lest the industry fall into turmoil, but neglects to offer any advice to Sony or Microsoft. Are we to be doomed by bugs and boredom?
[Thanks, SickNic]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Flash @ Nov 29th 2006 8:12PM
We know why M$ must be shunned, but why Sony?
Psaakyrn @ Nov 29th 2006 8:55PM
Know what I think? he should try to apply at Nintendo as well. Being only at two out of three companies doesn't give us a complete picture anyhow. For all we know, he may just be unnecessarily biased..
dum dum @ Nov 29th 2006 8:13PM
Wow, what a surprise: Sony sucks.
Rasgueado @ Nov 30th 2006 12:56AM
Uhhhm... this guy is QA at Ritual? Ooooooookeedokeee then. Hey... bang up job on SiN big gunner.
Optimus Prime @ Nov 29th 2006 8:54PM
OH PULEEEEZE ... he's a bitter dork who didnt get the job. Now, he's bitching about it on some blog? Yea, thats really professional; Im sure lots of devs. are going to be looking to interview him now; esp. when they know he's going to blog about them after he gets his please fuck off letter.
audioeric @ Nov 29th 2006 9:11PM
Heading up some IT Releases at my current job, I can tell you that it's much better to be like MS than Sony. We may lose some "creativity" in what we're doing, but what's the point in creativity at all if a system or function doesn't even work, or causes other things not to work...
Chris Welch @ Nov 29th 2006 9:22PM
What the hell kind of argument is this?
How has Microsoft "squashed" creativity? Look at Gears of War for Christ's sake. Halo. Countless others.
I can't even point the finger at Sony for any wrongdoing in this regard.
What a joke of an article to post.
Sam Kalman @ Nov 30th 2006 1:47PM
Greetings. Uproarer here.
"Russell calls for some middle ground to be walked, lest the industry fall into turmoil, but neglects to offer any advice to Sony or Microsoft. Are we to be doomed by bugs and boredom?"
The real issue here is that Sony allowed a bug which prevents the player from finishing the game to be shipped in the retail pressing of Genji. We don't know how exactly this happened, but it's pretty ridiculous. QA in the game industry is not well-respected, and commonly looked down upon. For this reason, it's possible that the testers who found the bug were unable to convince the producer(s) to fix the bug, or they lacked the proper channels of communicating its severity.
This is not a joke of an article to post, it is a real bug that affected many players who paid $760+ dollars for their PS3 and game, and were inconvenienced to the point that they lost all progress leading up to the bug. A little screaming on the part of those affected is a good way to say "hey, something needs to change within your QA department".
I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a constructive progression of solid QA methodologies and practices throughout the industry.
Kamalot @ Nov 29th 2006 10:00PM
Gengi is so creative that it caused the quality to suffer?
I suppose historical battles with Giant Enemy Crabs and real time weapon switching is super creative.
justchris @ Nov 29th 2006 10:55PM
@Prime,
Please read the post. He turned them down, and for good reason. Personally, I do believe Microsoft's process is superior to Sony's. Creativity can get another chance, but a single particular game only has one chance to work, and if it doesn't, that may hurt the chances of future games in that series.
Also, while he doesn't have any advice for them in this entry, he does talk about ideal QA situations in some of his previous entries.
Damon @ Nov 29th 2006 11:32PM
#7 - I think he might have been slightly exaggerating for the purpose of dichotomy, although there seems to be a comment on his blog now from an ex-Sony QA guy validating his claim.
Bruce @ Nov 30th 2006 2:13AM
Why is it some people can not just admit when their supported brand makes an error? It is very stupid.
His mention of the 8 weeks of QA sounds very valid. They work at the end of the project to fix things instead of doing it through out the development, it sounds like a very bad way to do it from his input. He zings MS for doing too much QA.
Rasgueado:
Was SiN Epi1 that bad? the first one was pretty buggy but it might have been before his time.
orange @ Nov 30th 2006 8:20AM
GoW creativity? Hah! It may be an excellent FPS, but it is still another FPS. Not a Sony fan here (don't even own a PS2), but you can't argue with some of the games that came out on the platform (SotC, Ico, Katamari etc.).
ackmondual @ Nov 30th 2006 12:13PM
@Michael Russell
Could the middle ground between quality and creativity be at Nintendo?
Robert Jung @ Nov 30th 2006 1:57PM
"Why is it some people can not just admit when their supported brand makes an error?"
You try spending 48 hours in line and $600+ for a Death Star console that's getting panned by gamers and reporters everywhere (and with all the love going to a low-priced "gimmicky" $250 competitor), and see how much objectivity and good cheer you can muster. Regular Joystiq Sony fanbois like Optimus Prime and > will be weeping for months...
--R.J.
Rasgueado @ Nov 30th 2006 8:11PM
Bruce: Apart from some boss A.I issues, a few CTD's, the normal sound issues with source games, clipping problems, path finding problems, and a few bugs that essentially caused the much touted A.I. system to not work properly... it wasn't that bad.