Babel Rolls Out New Gameplay Testing Service

Babel Media, a quality assessment outsourcing company for games developers, has launched a new international gameplay testing service.

The service, 'International Gameplay Testing' is intended to bridge the gap between market research and functionality testing. The service, which offers developers advice in subjective areas such as level balancing, game play analysis, user evaluation and focus testing, goes live following the completion of four pilot projects for major publishers.

The service will be based in the company's Brighton, UK and Montreal, Canada offices and, drawing on the teams' own extensive gaming experience, will provide feedback on how games will be received in target markets across the world.

Babel's Managing Director Algy Williams commented: 'We're able to give an independent and dispassionate opinion to publisher and developer alike at various stages of the process. Using an outside source is particularly helpful when team members may be too close to a project to be entirely objective.'

Babel Media was set up by partners Williams, Ben Wibberley and Anthony McGaw in 1995 to react to the tendency of companies such as Nintendo and Microsoft to outsource games testing and formatting. The firm's web site is at www.babelmedia.net .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.