The global video game market surpasses that of the music and movie industries combined. An estimate from NASDAQ puts the market at about $200 billion yearly. Let us know more about Paid To Test Video Games. It’s like being multiple Elon Musk’s every year. A lot of people earn money from video games from marketers, game developers, designers, and executives. What if I told you, you could earn money and sometimes make a living from playing video games?
There are 3 major ways to earn money from game testing:
- Sponsored game testing:
A game studio makes a game and makes it available for Beta testing for a select group of gamers who usually have a large following or fanbase, especially on Twitch and YouTube like the YouTube gamer theRadBrad or Twitch streamer Sweet Anita.
So, to become a sponsored game tester, you must build a large fan base, which is not an easy feat. To build a large fanbase you need to be exceptionally good at playing video games and post or stream consistently.
You will need a good capture system like OBS Studio for PC or a physical capture card for the PlayStation and the XBOX, a good microphone, and the ability to keep your viewers engaged and entertained through commentary.
- Game Testing Services:
This is usually the go-to method for companies and game studios that make games for mobile devices, especially Android devices. Put simply, game testing services are organizations that are responsible for testing games, collecting, and analyzing data from those tests, and reporting back to the game studios.
- Freelance Game Testing:
Anyone with any set of skills that are needed or important can make money from their skills through freelancing. Game testers can post their services online on Upwork, Fiverr, freelancing.com, or any other freelance websites.
The customers of such gamers are usually small to medium game studios and indie game developers. Freelance game testers with enough experience testing games usually provide services such as marketing strategies, menu UI testing, and sometimes even technical advice.
They are responsible for finding target game testers, screening, and paying them. This is done after the testing service has negotiated an amount with the studio which they would receive and pay the game testers a small percentage.
Examples of game testing services include :
- PlayTestCloud
- iXie gaming
- Respondent.io
and many others.
Usually, the game tester will be given a screening test to check if they’re qualified. Unlike the sponsored gamers the main qualification of these game testers is to have a loud, clear voice and to be able to explain things concisely.
A typical game testing scenario from a game testing service company involves a link to the unreleased game version being sent via email to the tester for download.
This is a pre-released version that contains instructions on tasks the game developers want the game tester to perform for a particular duration.
The tester is then required to record their screen whilst performing said tasks and providing commentary on the features and processes of the games and sometimes type their thoughts, critiques, or advice into a message box provided by the developers in the game.
People who are learning digital skills such as digital marketing or computer programming & software development may benefit from the experience of being a game tester. Paid To Test Video Games
A typical game tester’s pay from a game testing company is usually $8 – 10 for 15 minutes of testing.
During the registration to become a game tester, questions about your demographics, the games you play, and what gaming platform you use are some of the few questions you may be asked. If you plan on registering, make sure you answer those questions truthfully as those services have security measures such as VPN detection to check for false information.
The most prominent and most consistent way to make money playing video games is by GAME TESTING:
Any software created must go through a testing phase as it is part of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) that developers and software engineers use to know how good their product is. Games are very complex pieces of software and have several people working on them like level designers, character designers, game developers, QA developers, game designers, scriptwriters, world builders, lore and story creators, voice actors, etc. and all these elements, provided by those people must be combined into a single software. Due to this, testing is not easy as each of these aspects of the game needs to be tested and who better to test these aspects of the game than the people who would be playing the game. This is where game testers coming. Paid To Test Video Games
The MOST PROFITABLE way to make money playing video games is
ESPORTS:
Esports which stands for electronic sports is a competition in which video game players play against each other either by themselves or in teams.
The Esports competitions often come in the form of Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games with Mobile Online Battle Arena (MOBA like League of Legends, DOTA), First Person Shooter (FPS like Call of Duty, APEX Legends, Counter-Strike Global) Fighting (Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat), Platform Fighter ( Smash Bros, Brawlhalla) genres. Other genres may include Real-Time Strategy (RTS) and Card games.
These competitions are usually in tournament style or battle royale. To become an esports athlete, you must be extremely good at playing and completing mostly competitive games. In all honesty, Esports is not for the weak and it requires hard work, long hours, and dedication, just like regular athletes.
So, in case, you want to be an esports athlete, the very first step is to pick your game and then enmesh yourself with the community around that game.
You could engage with the community by joining Discord Servers or Subreddits and attending events and tournaments. The next step is to hone your skills through Practice, Practice, Practice!!!!! When it comes to esports you should pick only one game, that’s the one game you’ll play for most likely all your esports careers.
Conclusion
Through these communities, you can join local leagues and work your way up and along the way you may be scouted by a sponsor or pro team. The process of becoming an Esports athlete is almost like that of a regular athlete.
One of the main differences is that esports careers can be longer. If you still do not know where to start, you can read the stories of pro gamer athletes like Hungrybox and Armada in the Smash Bros franchise, Kyle Giersdorf in Fortnite, and Team Faze in Counterstrike Global to have an idea of the growth and process it takes to be an esports athlete.
