Thanks everyone for all of your comments about The Tester. I know many of you are excited about the upcoming launch of The Tester. I am here to share great news – it is premiering on February 18th exclusively on PlayStation Network! We’re also welcoming a new celebrity judge to our prestigious panel on The Tester – Hal Sparks! Most of you know him as an actor and comedian, but he’s also a diehard gamer. You can watch contestants face off against Hal throughout the eight-episode series – it’s going to be brutal.
The Tester is an original competitive reality series that PlayStation fans can really get into. Produced in partnership with one of the biggest names in reality TV (51 Minds), this is a program for gamers, about gamers who are competing to win a job as a game tester on PlayStation’s first party development team – the team that has introduced history-making franchises such as God of War, UNCHARTED, LittleBigPlanet and Gran Turismo. This is a golden opportunity for gamers to launch a career in gaming – in fact, some of the most recognized developers in the industry started out as a game tester.
From day one, the goal of PlayStation Network has been to provide quality content specifically for our PlayStation audience – including thousands of movies, TV shows, digital comics, games and add-on game content to choose from – and offering the flexibility to control when you want it, where you want it. Original content has consistently been a huge part of that vision, from first-party games such as Flower, flOw and Fat Princess to exclusive video content such as Qore and Pulse. And now, we are going even further by offering an original high-quality, reality series. With the largest network of first-party game studios in the industry and deep partnerships across the Sony brand already in place, look for us to continue to build out our stable of original content in the future.
PS3 and PSP owners can download The Tester from PlayStation Store starting February 18th for FREE. PlayStation Home users will also be able to watch the series with other PS3 owners in the PlayStation Home Theatre.
We’ve added more details on The Tester at www.TheTester.com, including photos, cast and panel details, and more. In the meantime, check out the trailer of The Tester below or from PlayStation Store.
The preview video had me until they started showing judges being intentionally mean and people crying. It’s just plainly unprofessional and not entertaining. I don’t watch reality TV, in general, for exactly this reason. I’ll give the first few episodes a shot, but will drop out if any of it seems overly dramatised.
The challenges look fun, though.
Hopefully the video will be at a decent bitrate. Some of the newer encodes from certain providers have looked pretty bad lately.
Man this look horrible
Wasn’t that guy in the photo from “Queer As Folks”???? LMAO
the job sucks testing the same game over and over for like 13 14 months. they r going to quit when they start testing a dora the explorer game.
I couldn’t even make it half way through the preview of the thing. It already looks like it’s going to fail. I mean if you’re going to put something on the PSN then at least make it entertaining.
51 Minds are the “geniuses” behind the type of reality shows most people secretly watch with fervor. They’ll act like they were playing a game or watching a movie, but we all know you watched Flavor of Love.
I know I did and I’m a freaking gamer. This show looks funny as all hell. It’s has appeal for both sexes (on my end, Roni, Amanda, Lauren and Ciji catch my eye… and Nicholle is even cute, but the trailer shows her to be really weak), tons of silliness, humor, chances for fights (I could see Will and Nauseous coming to blows, big egos there) and we just now learned Hal Sparks… next to Chris Jericho, the only good thing on those “I Love The…” shows on VH1.
I know I’ll be downloading.
Lol, “A mile.”
No ruthlessped, YOU are the biggest idiot on this blog. There’s no doubt about it. It’s completely hilarious how much internet rage you have. Get out of the house dude.
Yea, I call blind haters (like you) idiots. People who just say nothing but completey useless negative things. I didn’t insult the show, I gave halfway intelligent feedback, Something you are certainly incapable of.
Wow, they really did a job on my parts in the trailer…I’m the “ahem” crying Fame Girl. <_<'
Closed-caption, optional subtitle…???
If not, oh well. That tells us a lot about you and your company. But to be serious… When are you EVER planning to implement that feature?
must be a slow news day. 17 day advance notice = SPAM!
That looks promising! One more reason to stick with Sony PlayStation.
will it be full episodes to download or will it be just a preview?
& for Home users will that be showing full epiodes as well?
Carmen/Nicholle/Fame Girl:
They had to give you a role. Based on your audition tape though, I’m sure your tears are genuine and hopefully the show makes you look like a sincere woman instead of a crybaby not ready for the competition (as they did there).
Not sure why everyone is coming down on this. It’s for entertainment value, so why not enjoy it? I’m sure the same people working to improve PSN are not involved with production of the “show”, so it’s not like they are wasting time/effort as some have noted.
no wonder everytime i play my ps3 it smells like somethings burning its because SONY IS KILLING IT. ( goes and buys xbox) jk (im not kinding about the burning smell though plz help!!)
Yawn! Just what we need…. another reality series.
PSN exclusive, thats cool. i thought this reality show would of been on FOX or ABC network. well thats were most reality shows go anyhow.
” By a Mile” … “a mI-OLE”
Well news flash for you PlayStation Home Dev.
PlayStation Home is the laughing stock of PlayStation world.
So… IF i were you! I wouldn’t be sitting up at that panel..
Lets not forget “Trophy Room” and TV & MP3 players that we will NEVER get in PS HOme.
Your World, Your Life, Your Cheap Hollem ( Home )
Me: Your product is a laughing stock vs God Of War series and Twisted Metal series
Katherine De Leon: I wanna keep PS Home going as far as It can ( bOO hoo WOOAH )
Me: Your journey ends here, you are not the next good producer of a great PlayStation Brand
;)
i wanna be on it =]]
@rhcooper I thank you for your positive thinking in regards to the show and me being on it. It’s surreal how this is all happening, I mean if you told me like when I first got my PSOne all the way back in 1995 that my passion for gaming and Sony would have taken me here, I’d say you were crazy lol.
I guess this answers why Sony’s stock is going down the drain… One step forward and 10 steps back. I remember when Sony was a leader in almost everything… not a follower picking up things that have been used, again and again. Leave reality shows to burned down networks…how about more focus on what’s really at hand. Maybe an update on SOE or the software expantion on the PS3 to play better with others…surprise me.
Maan this is all we get to read on the PS Blog??? Lame!!!!!!
The problem with testers is that their standards are far too low. Hence all the garbage the market is flooded with. Also, that guy looks like a [DELETED].
This actually looks mildly interesting. Since it’s free I’ll definitely check it out.
This is just dumb, The money spent on this and too promote it could have been spent on Studio Liverpool.
Even if just kept them afloat a month more that would be 100000x better than this.
LOL cool, they got me breakdancing in there!
Whens Season 2
wth?..This is dumb its enough that we have to many reality TV shows and Sony goes even further?..Sony where is 3.20 and if its coming soon please tell me that it will have In Game Music as well as Cross Game Chat this is late to the part Sony!….But seriously to me HOME is now for KIDS!.. So I avoid HOME at all costs because its a Kids & Teen the environment
nice job Sony! Whatever happened to the Adult world for HOME?…I seriously rather hang out in the European version of HOME with Asia as well! Because at least they have more stuff to do they have a resort with retro cool stuff here no!..We need a better Dance club better in game music just something cool! HOME in America is not cool it is to much HIP-HOp! Where is Lady Gaga when you need her! Lady Gaga Rocks!
I demand a better Environment for us 25+ up Gamers Sony!..HOME is not where the heart is!
Why you ask there? Well for one there’s no Support for Cross Game Chat No In Game Music as of yet omg! you suck SCEA your so outdated! It is 2010 so what ya gonna do for us long time fans nothing?…HOME needs a better upgrade just something new I want the stuff from Japan here and soon! The Beach Resort etc the Dj Club etc. Yes I complain but for a good cause! Sony makes us suffer for no reason! =(
I’ve been in gaming QA for almost 10 years (started as a tester, ended up as a manager) and I’ll have to say that one of my biggest complaints about QA was the inability to secure competent, quality workers because management insisted on thinking it was a job a monkey could do and never offering reasonable salaries and benefits to attract actually serious workers.
Seeing this is a complete insult to the a field that’s already in the [DELETED] thanks to constant out-sourcing, employee burnout, and constant turnover. That’s not even starting with how crappy the department is treated by the rest of the development team for the most part (this is generally more the case in the large publishers).
Thanks for letting us know that the position is being treated as even more of a joke than ever.
Cool. And it’s free !
Hi I have been a big fan of Playststion since i can rember and am so happy to see how far playstation has gone but do be prepaired if this show dosent get good ratings.
Its cool Sony that you try to entertain the narrow minded…
It’s MY Birthday, I Am 38. For my Bday I want a video store for Canadian PSN, a Comics store on my New PSPGO and some free home stuff. BIRTHDAY
I feel sick after watching that video.
Is this for real? Jesus Christ :S
No thanks. I can’t stand this “reality” TV crap. Mixing gaming and American idol is about as appealing as drinking toilet water.
And the prize is to be a game tester? What an accomplishment (not to knock it, it can be an awesome and challenging job depending upon your technical skill level, which is not the case here). Sorry, but I just think this whole thing is sending out the wrong message. I’ve done the testing/QA bit with a few companies myself and I fail to see the glory behind all this (there is so much irrelevant nonsense going on here). How about putting together teams of people with real skills and have them compete to become the new Sony developer studio. I think watching a team start from the ground up sweating under the gun to producing a title under a deadline and then compete for the best title/studio would be far more entertaining and meaningful.
I wasn’t aware that being a game tester was such a hard job to obtain…
Also, what do most of those challenges have to do with games?
I too agree that this is ridiculous. Yet another reality show, oh boy! And to you who say lighten up and don’t be judgmental, and to you Susan, this is not something new or an original series. It was done before and didn’t earn a second season ( called Ultimate Challenge or something ). And at least one of the contestants on The Tester was on it. Still hasn’t worked out for them… Plus, to work that hard to work as a tester? Give me a break.
EyePet dynamic theme please.
For that matter, I want EyePet.
Thanks for nothing, SCEA.
Japanese developed games are far superior to the American produced garbage the market is flooded with.
TailsTheCat:
You say you want good games…but then you say you want EyePet!! WTF?!?
Which is it?
(And care to name these amazing Japanese games? For every 1 good Japanese game, I’ll list 5 good North America ones…)
going by the trailer there playing games that R already released…they should of had games that werent released yet so no-1 had any idea what was in the game.. I see the program as a giant trailor for all the big games the ps3 have…if the games were the 1s that werent released yet then every-1 would be @ the same level & knowlage of the games…& the contestents would be even….
luckily it not like reg TV that the show is chopped upwith comercials & has spoilers for whats in the show…& hopefully theres no hints as to what in future shows…
& when they release the 1st show the contest would be over…hopefully the show will be able to be put on ppls psp so they can watch it on those…
Will “The Tester” series be aloud in the UK?!!!
If it is…….. YAY!!!!!
SNAKE-EYES73–
ive been in PS HOME alotbut recently its turned into an area where a bunch of 12-19 year olds with no $$$ hangout
to my knowlage ps home was origionally supposed to be an 18-40+ a GAMERs comunity
that like 99% of the ppl in home were gamers.
Home was suposed to be a worls wide comunity that had items from different companies… Home in essence has become a giant advertisement for the ps3/psp games & to some parents has become a babysitter for their kids…
1 of the big reasons PS HOME SCEA isnt avancing like they should is because SONY wants to say family friendly if sony keeps putting out mature games the average age should stay where the new games R…very few games R for every1 in home…i personally think the top ppl who run sony dnt even go on there ps3 & talk with the general publicor listen to what the ppl want… in dec 2010 the XBL will have the games that theres no controller… the NEW motion controllers R basicallty like the Wii controllers but built for the ps3 teconologies..
My 6 year old nephew is a better gamer than any of those fools. He plays the PS3 and wii on his 50 inch Panasonic Plasma.
I’m surprised that no one has brought up the Penny Arcade comic yet. Hilarious and somewhat true.
Warning, contains fowl language:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/1/25/
I stop watching reality shows during last session of survivor. but call me a Sony sheep because I’m going to watch the tester(if Sony doesn’t shut the door on Canada and put the tester on the video side).
What does any of this have to do with game testing? I’m fairly sure you don’t get to test awesome games like Uncharted 2; you mostly test crappy games with all kinds of strange bugs. And the show has tons of reality show cliches, which doesn’t surprise me, since it’s created by 51 Minds, who have done at least 12 “franchises” on VH1, and it shows no signs of slowing down. At least the first episode is free! (Note to Sony: if you charge for the other episodes, I won’t watch them!) It is nice that they have industry people like Jaffe.
Will this be free? And Canada rocks!