With the addition of the App Store in 2008, consumers were given access to thousands of games available for instant download to the mobile device.  The app market place offered both free and paid games, with prices ranging from $0.99 cents to well over $9.99. Due to the popularity of the iOS device, players experienced a revolution in casual and social gaming.

The iPad is quickly becoming a major factor in the game industry, drawing a greater number of players who have tired of the traditional game console. This progression has given rise to a new business model, “Free to play” games with an “in game store” for cash purchases. The benefit of using this model is that players can download and play a game for free, but have the option to spend real cash to improve their experience.

Using this business model, developers and publishers can draw more players to their title, since acquiring the game does not cost any money. A greater number of downloads increases the likelihood of customers investing with cash purchases. This encourages developers to create high quality products with addictive content. Furthermore, a developer can include in game advertisement to generate additional revenue.

There are many benefits to using this model, but there can also be just as many problems. The game industry has a tendency to copy designs that prove successful in the market place. As a result, the App Store is inundated with clones of popular games. This makes it difficult for a new product to stand out above the crowd, which then affects the quantity of downloads.

Another problem is that some games focus on directing players to the store at the expense of maintaining fun factor.  Gamers are intelligent and expect a rewarding experience, so if a game places too many limits on what they can do without spending money it becomes boring, and the gamer will move on. People do not want to spend countless hours grinding for currency in a game just to reach the equivalent of a $.0.99 cent purchase.

Gamers are eager and willing to spend money, but that does not mean they will blindly purchase anything in the shop. The quality of the purchases must enhance the game, and avoid becoming an endless $0.99 cent black hole to make the game more enjoyable or accessible while the user continues to pay. Producing quality gameplay and content will yield better sales if the customer can still feel rewarded without being forced to make purchases.

The year 2005 saw the launch of the Xbox 360 as the first gaming machine of the seventh generation of consoles. Not only do the machines of this generation act as simple gaming consoles, they have become the centerpiece of many homes as a media hub capable of video playback, wireless internet access, and even fitness training. The technology inside these machines has become so advanced that the “Cell” microprocessor of the Playstation 3 even has applications in supercomputing.

One of the results of having so much computational power available for developers is that games today feature the most realistic graphics ever seen, incredibly deep stories, various gameplay mechanics, and highly complex AI systems. As video games become more compelling and accessible to the general public, they have become main stream and highly commercialized. Modern gamers have grown up playing games from an early age and have developed gaming intelligence.

Intelligent gamers have an understanding of what makes a game enjoyable and what features are detrimental to the experience causing them to become selective over which product is worth the financial investment. Today, developers face the difficult task of pushing the limits of the game console while trying to implement enough features to attract the modern gamer. The extraordinary cost of producing a game places a heavy burden on publishers and development studios to create a product that can compete and generate sales when it hits the market.

The video game market is inundated with products creating a highly competitive environment where the majority of games fail to sell in great quantities. The games that do the best on the market receive attention for being fully functional, feature rich, and enjoyable. Placing an emphasis on the quality assurance stage of development can help give a new product every advantage upon launching to the public.

The importance of quality assurance prior to the release of a product cannot be understated. Often times it is difficult for a developer to make changes to a game after it is released, even the occasional patch distributed online may have unexpected adverse effects. In addition, fixing games post release can be an expensive endeavor that may not pay off if the products reputation has been damaged.