In September, we announced an open casting call for The Tester and the response has been tremendous. I want to thank everyone for your submissions! We heard from thousands of PlayStation fans from across the country, all eagerly vying for a spot on The Tester and a chance to compete to win a gamer’s ultimate dream job – an official PlayStation game tester.
Today, I am pleased to be here on the PlayStation.Blog to introduce The Tester cast. In all, 11 contestants were selected for The Tester. The cast ranges in age from 22 – 36 years-old and stems from all walks of life – from a student, to a paramedic, to a used car salesman. While a seemingly diverse bunch, this group is united in the passion needed to be the next PlayStation game tester.
To produce The Tester, we teamed up with one of the biggest names in reality television, 51 Minds, the dynamic production company that is the force behind hit series such as The Surreal Life, Rock of Love, and many more hit TV shows. The Tester, to be by hosted Meredith Molinari, model and host of multiple online music shows, will follow the cast over eight episodes as they battle it out in a series of physical and mental challenges in a fight to win a position at Sony Computer Entertainment America. We have also lined up a distinguished panel of judges, including Brent Gocke, Release Manager from Sony Computer Entertainment, and guest judges such as David Jaffe, Director & Lead Designer of God of War and Twisted Metal.
Over the past 15 years, PlayStation has prided itself on not only offering great entertainment, but creating it, including blockbuster franchises and award-winning titles built from the ground-up, like Gran Turismo, God of War, UNCHARTED, LittleBigPlanet and many more; PlayStation Network has continued that tradition with a huge catalogue of original games, including critically acclaimed franchises like flOw, Flower and Fat Princess. Add to that thousands of movies and TV shows, hundreds of digital comics – and of course add-on game content, PS one classics and more – and it becomes clear why PlayStation Network has become the premiere source for digital entertainment at home and on the go. Moreover, the availability of original and exclusive content such as The Tester is just one of the ways PlayStation Network will get even better in 2010.
Stay tuned – we’ll be announcing a special celebrity judge and more show details on The Tester soon. In the meantime, go to TheTester.com check out more information on our cast and panelists and watch audition videos.
I challenge Naucious to a deathmatch……On crash cart racing!!!!
lol i accept, any day, anytime sir Doc
I have worked Sony first party before and all i have to say is… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Good luck to you guys. You should ask if the job is a 6 month temp job (which is what an average tester gets, at 12.50 an hour btw) or if they will actually give you a full time position. Either way judging from the looks of the people, i bet more than half dont make it past the 3 month insanity mark. lol that will be great to see though. although why would i pay to watch someone jump into a wall for 8 hours…
Oh and Kanedas_Bike, thats Crash Team Racing…
Naucious – Im gonna add you, we have to play cod mw2 together and maybe some cod5 nazi zombies. Miss you kid :)
@John6Doe03 lol ty for the correction. I was making a reference to the game, not actually naming the game. I would totally pay to watch you jump into a wall for 8hrs. Sounds like a fun 8hrs of pizza and beer for me and a fun 8hrs of band aids and ice packs for you. I should also mention for those ppl that had the honor of meeting him, David Jaffe is the MOTHER F#@KING MAN!!!!
@Naucious It’s all good. As someone else said “StarSlay3r was on the only two gaming reality shows in existance” guess ppl are pissed they couldn’t even get on one. No one knows about my gaming past. I only got a 360 3 yrs ago… was Playstation fan girl all the way up to that point, I just prefer ps2 over ps3 considering all the games I’d play on ps3 anyways are now on 360 (sooo happy Final Fantasy finally made the switch BTW!)
Haters gonna hate. They can say whatever… they don’t know any of us. I miss you goof, naucious, big d, doc and lugey! Take care!
P.S. Naucious did you add me on PSN yet?
Honestly I dont know how on Playstation.com but i’ll figure it out soon enough but i wonder can i do it by sending a request on my PS# and if so I will try…
lol@ Naucious, Such a gifted gamer and the friend request throws you for a loop? I got your back bro :)
ciji’s hair looks like raggedy anne in this photo but black. shes a total clown.
Miss everyone! I am excited to start seeing the shows!
LMAO @Alienzero2k1 Dude you have successfully trolled this post for 3 full days and no one really cares what you have to say. I’m sorry but you do not receive a trophy for being a troll.
@Deathtemptress lmao too funny good one
Haha. The Penny Arcade comic about this is so right on. I worked as a tester for THQ for a year, and the hours were brutal, the games were terrible (even more so, because they were buggy as hell, of course), the PEOPLE were goddawful, the pay was very minimal. And I have several friends who work for Sony who complain about it CONSTANTLY. (SCEA and SOE, both in San Diego).
Too bad I missed the casting call though, it still would have been fun to be on the show. There are still plenty of worse jobs than game testing.
I worked at the Sony facility in San Diego for almost 2 years. IT’S A JOKE!! I worked with a couple of the panelists, and I remember them being d-bags and ass-kissers. They didn’t actually do any work, but they took a lot of credit. That happened all the time. I left there with a group of 3 or 4 guys whom Sony considered barely temp worthy (monkeys with controllers), and we all got hired on full time within 3 months of jumping to another company. Sony’s employee policy is a joke, and this show is a joke.
That being said, I’ll probably still watch the highlights so I can laugh uncontrollably at the person who wins. I bet they don’t last 2 titles.
And they’ll get lost in the sea of 100+ 18-year-old immature high school drop-outs. Did I mention that?
I must do what is necessary to become a tester… when’s the next casting. Look out for my name I tell you…
If there’s anyone like Serta_Assasin who has knowlegde on the matter, please talk to me. Give me insite, more imput. Hit me up S_A ;) I would like to know more about your personal experience with the game industry or game testing good and bad. THX
So all the cast posting here saying they miss each other and can’t wait to see the show, can I ask who won?
I know they will all be under NDA’s, but someone who isn’t must know ;o)
Just because we won’t get it in the UK, be nice to know who won!
It’s only a bit of fun all, and good marketing.
I did some testing for EA canada during college – holy crap it was mind numbing work for little pay. Yeah, it sounds like a dream job if you’re 15, but it’s not. Lots of pressure, lots of burnout, lots of turnover.
There was an article a while back about a report who went into Microsoft’s testing shop – one highlight was a tester who had to repeatedly wipe and re-install one of the X-box updates to make sure it would work. Not even playing games – imagine doing that 40 hours a week.
Found it:
http://www.seattleweekly.com/2007-07-11/news/testing-video-games-can-t-possibly-be-harder-than-an-afternoon-with-xbox-right.php?page=full
I imagine anyone who’s been in the industry will recognize those stories.
ive seen ciji on the Xbox WCG ultimate gamer show…
i think the ppl on the show should have a REAL 9-5 job…”Professional Gamer” is not classified as an occupation… unless ur actually working as a developer or tester…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAUCIOUS!!!!!
and good morning to all the Haters and Trolls
-Doc loves you all
RocketSquirrel
im supprised that they let an Xboxer (ciji) in the contest i think 1 of the major qualificationss is that u needed an active psn account(over 10 months old)… going by starslay3r.com she s an Xbox person & spends hrs on it.. & shes part of the WCG which is an Xbox compition… i think if ur in active compitition they should be eleminated fron the shows… because none of the other ppl on the show R part of the competitive gamming coumunity… I hope part of the compition is outside the the ps3 games…
Hah. This is great. Ciji’s wigging out here, and on the trailer already. “Oh noes! You’re teaming up on me!!!”
Does game testing really need aimless drama introduced to it on a daily basis?
It still surprises me how keen people are on the career of video game tester. I have done it for a number of years and although i enjoy it overall, its not what i originally expected. I will still watch the show with interest though :)
I have written articles on this over at http://www.videogame-tester.org