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With the proliferation of smartphones and mobile apps, the online gambling industry has become a multi-billion-dollar field that continues to grow rapidly. The experts at Research and Markets state that the global gambling market, encompassing both traditional casinos and online platforms will reach $224.1 billion by 2030. According to Statista, the worldwide count of online gambling users is expected to increase to 291.4 million by 2029.  

Source: Casinos – Global Strategic Business Report 

But what makes a game truly stand out? Is it breathtaking graphics or satisfying mechanics? While these features elevate the software, they mean little if crashes occur. Additionally, the gambling industry is one of the most dynamic and heavily regulated sectors in the world, meaning that successful expansion into new markets depends largely on complying with regional regulations. 

Therefore, a region-specific approach to quality control can ensure that new gambling software works flawlessly and meets strict legal and technical requirements.  

This article provides an overview of the role of QA in game development and an optimal strategy for rolling out resilient solutions for diverse markets. 

QA as an essential addition for any game development project  

The iGaming industry has witnessed a variety of different solutions — video slots, table games, poker, sports betting platforms, bingo, live dealer services, just to name a few. In such a competitive environment, a single error can cause end user dissatisfaction, resulting in poor reviews, user churn, and even lost profit.  

A comprehensive quality assurance approach applied early in the SDLC can help organizations turn the tide and derive numerous business perks, the most vital of which are: 

  • Compliance with legal demands 

Regulatory authorities in the EU, USA, Singapore, Macau, and other jurisdictions enforce distinct official standards to ensure fair play, transparency, and the protection of players, which all gambling software developers must comply with. Consistent and recurrent software testing helps adhere to these norms and avoid financial penalties, legal repercussions, or license suspension despite the evolution of regulations.  

  • Strengthened software reliability 

Thorough quality control serves to detect issues of differing severity and helps prevent any downtime or lost revenue, especially during traffic spikes. For instance, by relying on comprehensive performance testing, a developer of an online casino game integrated with Facebook, managed to handle 10,000 concurrent users while keeping the response time below 0.2 seconds. 

  • Improved cost-efficiency 

If testers initiate QA activities early in the development phase, software engineers can mitigate them easier and quicker before they escalate into full-fledged problems. Such a proactive approach reduces financial concerns surrounding late fixing of post-launch failures and prevents unwelcome interruptions.  

  • Accelerated time to market 

When automated testing reinforced with AI is introduced, organizations can not only attain high-quality software but significantly expedite its deployment. For instance, with a1qa’s test automation support, another developer of online mobile “social games”, managed to reduce development time of an automated test by 28%, which in a nine-month span the QA team saved 788 hours. 

  • Enriched brand perception 

When gambling software is highly intuitive and operates without a hitch across diverse devices and OSs, it has more chances to retain end users, make them trust the brand, and recommend solutions to other players.  

Bespoke QA strategy for navigating diverse regulatory landscapes 

Let’s have a look at a region-specific evaluation process that can help organizations address unique demands of each market and launch a gambling product both enjoyable for users and complying with stringent regulations. 

  1. Compliance testing 

This is a mandatory move for any organization that wants to guarantee the software is legally and ethically sound across all targeted geographical areas.  

For instance, in the UK, licensing is overseen by the Gambling Commission, while in Malta, companies must comply with the Malta Gaming Authority, each with its own set of regulations. The taxation system in each country also differs, meaning that financial reports must correspond with local demands. Additionally, it’s essential for gambling software to meet internationally accepted standards and certifications, such as eCOGRA that prioritizes game fairness. 

QA engineers delve into targeted regulatory guidelines, check for regulatory changes, create a test plan that addresses critical areas, and run compliance tests to ensure that no legal pitfalls will arise after software launch and save money for additional attempts to pass certification. 

  1. Localization testing 

Before releasing gambling software in any geographical region, it’s vital to conduct localization testing to make sure that it adheres to regional laws or cultural practices. 

QA engineers check that the application accommodates regional currencies, symbols, and date and time formatting. They also verify that text adjusts seamlessly to buttons, menus, and UI components, avoiding truncation or alignment issues. Additionally, they confirm that licensing and certification data is accurate and regionally valid as well as review compliance with area-specific gambling laws, such as age limitations. 

Through this a1qa’s encompassing localization quality control approach, the developer of online social games managed to successfully adapt the software for international markets, including the EU, the USA, Canada, Australia, and parts of Asia.  

  1. Security testing 

A cyberattack in November 2024 targeted a leading gambling technology provider, disrupting its internal IT systems and applications. Upon discovering the intrusion, the company took immediate action by taking certain systems offline. Although the extent of disruption is unknown, such an incident is bound to affect the company’s reputation. 

Therefore, security testing is a pivotal aspect for any gambling operator striving to enter new markets with minimized business risks. Detailed testing enables companies not only release software resilient to DDoS and bot attacks, account takeovers, ransomware threats, or other fraudulent activities but ensure the IT products adheres to the technical and legal requirements within GDPR, PCI DSS, CCPA, ISO 27001, and other regional standards. 

By executing penetration testing, vulnerability scanning, pre-certification security audits, QA engineers identify weak spots and confirm the gambling software and user data are fortified against known problems.  

  1. Performance testing 

For online gambling platforms, ensuring fast, scalable, and responsive performance is crucial. Setbacks in its operation can directly affect user contentment and lead to severe financial consequences, legal complications, and a tarnished reputation. 

Companies may supplement their QA strategies with performance testing to ensure that millions of players from multiple geographical locations can seamlessly leverage such platforms for their entertainment and successful financial transactions fulfilled in the real time.  

By conducting server- and client-side verifications, QA engineers subject applications to conditions beyond their limits, evaluate how they function under pressure, and detect imperfections. 

  1. Functional testing 

Whether we’re talking about a slot machine, roulette wheel, card game, or any other gambling software type, players must be assured that all its crucial features work as intended and deliver robust user experiences.  

Therefore, QA specialists can apply diverse functional testing types to verify the entire application flow (registration, placing bets, calculations, live streaming, withdrawal, etc.) and evaluate operational, graphical, and integrity aspects of the game to pinpoint any problems before the release when they are easier and cheaper to resolve. 

  1. Mobile app testing 

The gambling industry has experienced a major shift in recent years, as mobile devices have become the go-to platform for many players. This transformation is driven by a variety of factors, such as round-the-clock accessibility, faster payments, biometric authentication, and others. 

Testing these mobile apps is vital, as it helps create a dependable environment that users can trust, mitigating potential risks, increasing player satisfaction, and strengthening the app’s market superiority. 

Therefore, QA engineers leverage real mobile devices specific to each geographical region and verify application life cycle, performance, security, reaction to various interruptions, network connectivity, and many other aspects. 

Summing up 

Launching gambling IT products across various markets demands a comprehensive, carefully crafted validation framework that ensures compliance, regulatory alignment, and region-specific testing. A structured quality assurance approach helps mitigate risks, build user trust, and drive long-term success in the competitive gambling industry. 

Are you planning to launch new gambling products? Contact a1qa’s experts to get professional QA consultation and support. 

A significant jump in the number of players occurred during the isolation of 2020, boosting the revenues in digital gaming to $174.9 billion in the same year. Today, over 3 billion people play video games to combat boredom, escape the real world, make new connections, and even learn new skills.

As the number of players grows, so does the role of QA to safeguard game integrity, fulfill end-user needs, and build their trust. Therefore, the question arises: how can an effective QA strategy help you release a first-rate game, be it on PC, console, or mobile devices?

We’ve got you covered: in this blog, we’ll walk through the reasons why quality assurance is a must and unveil testing types, helping deliver exceptional game experiences to consumers.

The pivotal role of QA for video games: 3 reasons named

Let’s delve into the reasons why QA plays a critical role for the gaming industry.

1. Optimized costs

By implementing QA early in the development phases, organizations track and eliminate defects before they cause any damage, like constant crashes or failed in-game purchases, and avoid expensive post-launch expenditures.

Just look at this case: due to high anticipation, CD Projekt SA compromised on quality to meet the release schedule of Cyberpunk 2077. The game failed due to dozens of bugs, which damaged the studio’s quality-first image. Fixing the issues cost the company almost $1b.

This kind of a misstep can be prevented with professional QA.

2. Advanced gaming experience

A buggy game is unlikely to be enjoyable for players, instead, it hinders gameplay, causes irritation, and generates a bunch of bad reviews. As a result, it tarnishes a company’s reputation, erodes loyalty, ultimately reducing revenue.

QA helps turn things around. By meticulously identifying glitches and technical hurdles, organizations ensure an immersive environment, fine-tune gameplay mechanics, and prevent lags and disruptions. All these contribute to an uninterrupted experience, keeping users engaged and enhancing their retention rates.

3. Improved safety and reliability

In-game vulnerabilities are of value to cybercriminals, allowing them to steal internal currencies, expensive digital items, and private information. According to Akami’s State of the Internet report, cyberattacks on player accounts and gaming companies increased by 167% in 2022.

Through quality assurance, businesses uncover injection points, reducing the risk of fraud and preventing cheating and unauthorized access.

7 core testing types to release top-notch, engrossing games

To deliver a high-quality game and provide an unsurpassed first impression, organizations can apply 7 critical types of testing.

1. Functional testing

Before the game goes live, businesses need to ensure that it meets the stated specifications and runs smoothly. Functional testing helps trace out issues related to audio and video, design, basic game mechanisms, and payment gateways, as well as errors in installation and launching.

2. Performance testing

In June, PUBG’s concurrent players reached over 376,000. Consider the high performance required to keep the game from crashing!

To ensure flawless operation, businesses should conduct stress testing. Since a sudden surge of users can lead to slow functioning, data losses, and security issues, it demonstrates how the game operates beyond its projected capacity.

Load testing, in its turn, allows checking the overall performance and identifying the maximum number of simultaneous players.

3. Cybersecurity testing

The global gaming market is estimated to reach $384.9 billion by the end of 2023. As the industry grows, so does the risk of cyber incidents.

Source: Statista

In 2019, cybercriminals discovered a vulnerability in Fortnite and gained access to 80 million accounts. They stole virtual currency, eavesdropped and recorded conversations, and used players’ credit cards to purchase items. No one wants to get in a similar situation, right?

So, how to mitigate such hazards? Through robust cybersecurity testing, businesses uncover weaknesses in cyber defenses, ensure sensitive data protection, prevent hacking and cheating, and safeguard in-game transactions.

As part of cybersecurity, compliance testing helps make sure that the game meets industry regulations to increase user trust and avoid hefty fines.

4. Compatibility testing

According to the Statista Global Consumer Survey, 54% of adults prefer playing video games on smartphones, 35% — on game consoles, 32% — on PCs or laptops, and 25% — on tablets.

To provide an unrivaled experience to all consumers, the organization needs to test compatibility across platforms, operating systems, and browsers.

As people use a wide range of hardware configurations (different phone models, graphics cards, processors, and memory sizes), it’s also critical to guarantee that the game runs smoothly on various setups without crashes.

5. Localization testing

To make the game enjoyable for players across the globe, companies should prioritize localization tests. It allows the adaptation of the content to the cultural nuances of different regions and ensures the translated version of the app is consistent and clear.

Localization QA helps identify bugs in these three aspects:

  • National: incorrect currencies, calendars, metrics, number formats, and symbols.
  • Visual: improper fonts, truncated characters, and placement of graphic elements.
  • Functional: misleading commands and links, corrupted audio or text.

6. Usability testing

Consumers expect to spend a minimal amount of time figuring out how to navigate the game. After all, who would want to waste hours on it?

To make sure that players can effortlessly dive into the game, QA teams may suggest adopting usability testing. This helps identify glitches in the user interface, controls, mechanics, and menus, providing engaging experiences with no interruptions.

7. Test automation

To speed up QA processes, release a high-quality game faster, and stay one step ahead of the fierce competition, businesses often opt for test automation.

It’s especially beneficial in the long run as it reduces QA expenditure, saves efforts on repetitive tasks, and facilitates regression testing that is vital to make sure the newly added features haven’t affected existing functionality.

Closing remarks

As the gaming industry continues to grow and evolve, one thing remains constant: the pivotal role of QA in helping optimize costs, deliver advanced experiences to players, and improve software safety and reliability.

To make the game stand out in the IT market, businesses may conduct 7 core testing types: functional, performance, cybersecurity, compatibility, localization, usability, and automated ones.

Searching for QA support in releasing top-performing video games? Contact a1qa’s team.

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