Sony makes Reality Show, The Tester. Winner gets to test.

[Edgerock]

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/01/ ... -revealed/

In September, we announced an open casting call for The Tester and the response has been tremendous. I want to thank everyone for your submissions! We heard from thousands of PlayStation fans from across the country, all eagerly vying for a spot on The Tester and a chance to compete to win a gamer’s ultimate dream job – an official PlayStation game tester.

Today, I am pleased to be here on the PlayStation.Blog to introduce The Tester cast. In all, 11 contestants were selected for The Tester. The cast ranges in age from 22 – 36 years-old and stems from all walks of life – from a student, to a paramedic, to a used car salesman. While a seemingly diverse bunch, this group is united in the passion needed to be the next PlayStation game tester.

The Tester Cast

To produce The Tester, we teamed up with one of the biggest names in reality television, 51 Minds, the dynamic production company that is the force behind hit series such as The Surreal Life, Rock of Love, and many more hit TV shows. The Tester, to be by hosted Meredith Molinari, model and host of multiple online music shows, will follow the cast over eight episodes as they battle it out in a series of physical and mental challenges in a fight to win a position at Sony Computer Entertainment America. We have also lined up a distinguished panel of judges, including Brent Gocke, Release Manager from Sony Computer Entertainment, and guest judges such as David Jaffe, Director & Lead Designer of God of War and Twisted Metal.

Over the past 15 years, PlayStation has prided itself on not only offering great entertainment, but creating it, including blockbuster franchises and award-winning titles built from the ground-up, like Gran Turismo, God of War, UNCHARTED, LittleBigPlanet and many more; PlayStation Network has continued that tradition with a huge catalogue of original games, including critically acclaimed franchises like flOw, Flower and Fat Princess. Add to that thousands of movies and TV shows, hundreds of digital comics – and of course add-on game content, PS one classics and more – and it becomes clear why PlayStation Network has become the premiere source for digital entertainment at home and on the go. Moreover, the availability of original and exclusive content such as The Tester is just one of the ways PlayStation Network will get even better in 2010.

Stay tuned – we’ll be announcing a special celebrity judge and more show details on The Tester soon. In the meantime, go to TheTester.com check out more information on our cast and panelists and watch audition videos.

[Cuckooguy]

I hope everyone here made the cut!

I've been a Sony game tester for a couple months now. It's not so bad so far.

[G.Silver]

Why didn't these people just, I dunno, apply to be game testers?

[Segaholic2]

What a diverse group of people.

[Yami CJMErl]

And here I thought reality shows couldn't get any more banal. Glad to see Sony lowering the bar (yet again)!

[Dr. BUGMAN]

Loving the fat ripples on fauxhawk over there.

[Crisis]

I've been a Sony game tester for a couple months now. It's not so bad so far.

How did they whittle down applicants prior to the reality TV system? Gladiatorial combat?

[Malchik]

Oh boy, a new "gamer" themed program full of hipsters. This is as pathetic as a reality show based of people struggling to bust into the industry to become a medical test rat or crash dummy.

[Protodude]

Hey, anyone else remember that show on SciFi SyFy where the gamers had to do real life events (very) loosely based on the games they loved oh so much?!?

[Malchik]

I predict these "beta testers" will be testing almost complete games. The real testers will test games still heavily in production and then these clowns will practically advertise an almost finished piece.

Alternatively they may not even test a single game and rip off big brother with the prize being a chance to test a game. Lame prize if this is the case.

[Crazy Penguin]

Performing repetitive tasks for hours on end in shitty games that don't work would be a dream come true.

[Malchik]

Yah, if it were a average beta testing job. I love a job like that (minimum wage?). But being in a house packed with smug hipsters would be... irritating. Remember, this is going to be a reality (I use that word loosely) drama.

[j-man]

Every girl will cry at least once, and someone will invariably use the phrase "it's GO time".

[Crazy Penguin]

The only one who looks anything close to a hipster is the girl with the hair and jacket, unless you count the goatee douchebag who wishes he was a hipster.

[j-man]

He looks like a shitty Lorne Lanning.

[(No Imagination)]

No hipsters here - I don't see a single scarf. They look more like generic college people from every other generic reality show.

I can't imagine why anyone would want to compete for a testing job, though - it's like the dullest videogame-related profession out there. Being a janitor at Sony and having access to all their garbage bins would've been more fun.

[Dr. BUGMAN]

These people were raised in Skinner Boxes; for them it's like being back in the womb.

[j-man]

I've got a scarf, but I'm not a hipster. It's cold sometimes.

[Segaholic2]

Whatever, fag.

[j-man]

So, you want some pictures, or...?

[P.P.A.]

I have a scarf admittedly also for aesthetic purposes but primarily just because it's winter right now and my double-breasted coat and blazer both leave my neck exposed.
Also, I carry around a walking stick.

[Edgerock]

Trailer for Sony's "The Tester"

http://www.thetester.com/

Weirdest group of gamers ever.

[Segaholic2]

Apparently this show will be distributed for free on PSN, so I will likely download and watch at least the first episode to see how awful it is.

[Ritz]

You mean the trailer wasn't enough for you?

Though, I did laugh at "By a mile."

[Arcade]

Hey here is an idea, leave five programers on an desert island and they have to make a videogame each day or they starve to death!