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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technologies? With

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Speaker 1: tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hi there, everyone,

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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poelette and

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Speaker 1: I am an editor here at how stuff works dot

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Speaker 1: com and sitting next to me as always a senior writer,

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Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland, you're dead to me. Yeah. Yeah, so Chris

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Speaker 1: is reading his notes off of his brand new iPad. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and your point being it's pretty Yeah, it's also heavy,

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Speaker 1: So I'm going to hear to get a stand for

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Speaker 1: this thing. Okay, good. I'm glad that you were able

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Speaker 1: to throw in some sort of downside to it, because

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Speaker 1: otherwise I might end up everything has an upside in

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Speaker 1: a downcer. So you know what also takes has an

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Speaker 1: upside and downside? What's that, Jonathan? Testing video games? Oh?

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Speaker 1: You mean like the best job in the world. That's

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Speaker 1: what some people think. But we're here to talk about

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Speaker 1: what really goes on with video game testers. And you know,

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Speaker 1: you see a lot of stuff online about it. There

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Speaker 1: are lots of sites that, uh purport to help you

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Speaker 1: become a video game tester. We'll probably talk a little

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Speaker 1: bit about that and uh and in a few minutes. Um.

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Speaker 1: But uh, you know, there's a lot of different arguments

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Speaker 1: on either side. Like there's some people who will say, hey,

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Speaker 1: I can't believe it. I get to make money playing

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Speaker 1: video games. It's awesome. You should do it too. And

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Speaker 1: then there are those who are saying, no, it's really

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Speaker 1: the worst job in the world. And really, again, the

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Speaker 1: truth lies between the extremes. Well, I think that the

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Speaker 1: basic if you get right down to the the the

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Speaker 1: core truth of it is, it's a job. It's not

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Speaker 1: something where you go and play, you know, to play. Right.

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Speaker 1: So let's let's talk about what video game testers actually do. Now,

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Speaker 1: it's their job to take a video game for you know,

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Speaker 1: a video game per assignment, let's say, and to test

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Speaker 1: out a certain set of uh maybe perhaps certain set

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Speaker 1: of levels. Or they're told that the video game developers

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Speaker 1: have just uh instituted a particular new feature and it's

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Speaker 1: their job to test the feature, make sure that everything

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Speaker 1: happens the way it's supposed to. Well, it's like any

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Speaker 1: kind of software testing really, I mean, there when when

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Speaker 1: software developer is putting together a program of some kind, uh,

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Speaker 1: generally the developer is going to give it to a

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Speaker 1: group of testers to see if they can break it. Essentially,

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Speaker 1: that's where the the vernacular. But yeah, I mean the

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Speaker 1: idea is to well do everything you can to it

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Speaker 1: and see if there are any bugs in it, or

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Speaker 1: if there are any bugs. We need to work these

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Speaker 1: out before we release this to the general public. And

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Speaker 1: the developer has invested interest in doing this because if

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Speaker 1: they release a a program of of any kind to

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Speaker 1: the public that has a lot of problems with it,

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Speaker 1: it's difficult to use. Um, people are going to complain

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Speaker 1: about it. And you know, in these days when when

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Speaker 1: the Internet is plenty of places for us to complain

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Speaker 1: about it. Um, it's not like it's gonna go unnoticed

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Speaker 1: if you if you throw a lamon out there. So

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Speaker 1: the game testers, you know, the video game industry has

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Speaker 1: as a multibillion dollar industry, they it's in their best

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Speaker 1: interest to give it to a bunch of people to

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Speaker 1: try anything and everything they can to see if they

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Speaker 1: can make it break right, right, Yeah, because it can

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Speaker 1: affect the sales of the video game, which that's the

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Speaker 1: bottom line. You know, these video game companies are making

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Speaker 1: video games, not necessarily because they really want to entertain you,

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Speaker 1: but because it's a great way to make money. It's

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Speaker 1: not to say that everyone who works in the video

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Speaker 1: game industry is just interested in making cash, but at

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Speaker 1: the end of the day, it's a business, so you

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Speaker 1: do want to have that quality assurance team uh to

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Speaker 1: check your your product before it ships, because you would

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Speaker 1: rather know about a problem before it hits store shelves

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Speaker 1: so that you can fix it rather than release something.

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Speaker 1: I mean, we've seen it happened time and time again

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Speaker 1: where a game has come out and the producers will

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Speaker 1: actually say, yeah, um, you're gonna notice when you play

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Speaker 1: this that this one thing doesn't really work well, but

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Speaker 1: don't worry. We've got a patch coming in a month.

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Speaker 1: And you're thinking, wow, that that's Unfortunately they found that

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Speaker 1: bug so late in the development cycle. It's also why

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Speaker 1: I don't I always think it's a better idea to

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Speaker 1: tell people the game will be done when it's done,

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Speaker 1: rather than to announce a release date, especially if you're like,

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Speaker 1: by the end of the year, this game is coming out,

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Speaker 1: because I guarantee you there's gonna be something that comes

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Speaker 1: up and either they're gonna have to drop a feature

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Speaker 1: from the game, or it'll go out a little buggy,

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Speaker 1: or that it ends up missing its release date. Can

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Speaker 1: you think of a game that misses its release date? Oh,

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Speaker 1: because they would get most of the way through it,

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Speaker 1: find a better gaming engine and decided to scrap the

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Speaker 1: entire development of the game and started from scratch. I

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Speaker 1: have a feeling you're talking about Duke Nukem Forever. That's

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Speaker 1: a good example. So video game testers what they do

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Speaker 1: is they test the hell out of the video game

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Speaker 1: to make sure that there aren't any game breaking bugs

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Speaker 1: out there. And that that's everything from running through a

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Speaker 1: level the way you're supposed to to doing everything you're

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Speaker 1: not supposed to do in the video game to make

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Speaker 1: sure it doesn't break the game. Because I guarantee you,

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Speaker 1: if you release a game, some player out there is

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Speaker 1: going to try something that you know it never occurred

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Speaker 1: to you when you were building the game, because you're thinking, oh,

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Speaker 1: player has to get from point A to point B,

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Speaker 1: and here's the pathway that the player needs to go through. Well,

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Speaker 1: when you give that to real people, they're like, oh, well,

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Speaker 1: I'm at point A, I need to get the point B.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna take this totally different route than no one

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Speaker 1: ever even imagined when they were developing the game, and

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Speaker 1: see if that works, what happens if I jump off

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Speaker 1: this wall here right? So you you could be if

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Speaker 1: you were a video game software tester, you might be

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Speaker 1: asked to shoot anything and everything in the room to

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Speaker 1: see what what happens, right, And if anything unusual happened,

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Speaker 1: you would have to document it and you would have

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Speaker 1: to be able to explain in very clear terms exactly

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Speaker 1: what happened and why it was a problem. And here's

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Speaker 1: another element about video game testers. Some people think the

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Speaker 1: video game testers would would play a game and then say, oh,

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Speaker 1: you know this, this level would be great if only

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Speaker 1: you had a bad guy behind this one door instead

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Speaker 1: of behind that counter, because when you put them behind

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Speaker 1: the counter, it's a it's too hard to see and

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Speaker 1: uh and it makes it makes this level way too hard.

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Speaker 1: They don't care. That's not what you're there for. If

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Speaker 1: you're a video game tester, you're not there to tell

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Speaker 1: them that their game is great or their game stinks.

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Speaker 1: You're there to tell them, hey, your game works or

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Speaker 1: it doesn't work right right, And you may you may

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Speaker 1: be asked to play let's say Level three over and

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Speaker 1: over and over again to make sure that it's playable

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Speaker 1: and then everything works correctly. Or you may just be

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Speaker 1: told to load level three over and over, not even playing,

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Speaker 1: just loading it over and over to make sure that

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Speaker 1: the game doesn't crash if you load and then restore

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Speaker 1: a saved gametimes in a row. Or you could be

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Speaker 1: asked to turn it on and off to see how

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Speaker 1: long the loading process actually takes for the game itself right.

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Speaker 1: You could also be told, hey, U turn on level three,

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Speaker 1: and you know we've got those in. If you've played

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Speaker 1: video games, you know a lot of video games have

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Speaker 1: invisible walls, which drive me nuts. I hate invisible walls.

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Speaker 1: But when you come up to the edge of a

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Speaker 1: level and it doesn't let you go any further, even

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Speaker 1: though you can see as a character that there's more there,

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Speaker 1: but there are people down there, I want to go

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Speaker 1: talk to them. They might want you to check every

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Speaker 1: single little space around the entire perimeter of the level

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Speaker 1: to make sure you don't pass through something and and

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Speaker 1: go somewhere you're not supposed to. This. This also applies

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Speaker 1: to levels where there are solid walls. They may say, oh,

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Speaker 1: you know what I need you to walk along the

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Speaker 1: perimeter of every single solid wall to make sure it

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Speaker 1: is solid and that you don't accidentally pass through and

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Speaker 1: go into a part of the level that you're not

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Speaker 1: supposed to. And of course, uh, this is where earlier

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Speaker 1: Easter Egg podcast comes into because sometimes there are you know,

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Speaker 1: deliberately holes and there was invisible walls, but they're there

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Speaker 1: for your reason. They don't want to make sure that

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Speaker 1: there aren't any that aren't supposed I don't want to

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Speaker 1: see like you somehow accidentally turned clipping off and then

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Speaker 1: you're able to just walk through everything. Um. Also another

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Speaker 1: thing to keep in mind when you're a video game tester,

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Speaker 1: like we've already pretty much I think we've runned into

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Speaker 1: the ground that you're not playing the game in order

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Speaker 1: to win it. Um also play straight through. Yeah, you're

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Speaker 1: also not necessarily playing the anything close to a final build.

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Speaker 1: What you might be playing might miss tons of of

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Speaker 1: functions and features, meaning that what you're what you are

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Speaker 1: currently running through will have no resemblance to the final

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Speaker 1: product once it's released. But um, I'm sorry, go ahead, no, no,

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Um to that point into your earlier point, Uh,

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Speaker 1: if from what I've read game testers basically get their

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Speaker 1: hands on the earliest playable version of the game, because um,

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Speaker 1: as soon as you know, they can get testing in there.

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Speaker 1: You know, if they keep building and building and building

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Speaker 1: and wait until the final version is done and say, okay,

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Speaker 1: well we're pretty sure this is a playable build of

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Speaker 1: the game, go on ahead. Well, there might be layers

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Speaker 1: and layers and layers of code that depend on that

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Speaker 1: buggy chunk that causes problems that they'll have to completely recode.

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Speaker 1: So they need to get people uh testing those games

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Speaker 1: as soon as possible to prevent you know, additional mistakes

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Speaker 1: added on layer by a layer onto the uh unto

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Speaker 1: the original bug. So, um, you know this isn't something

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Speaker 1: that they wait until the final is done. Yeah. And

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Speaker 1: not only that, but uh, the once they fix a bug,

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Speaker 1: then you may have to go back and do the

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Speaker 1: exact same thing you just finished doing for the last

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Speaker 1: four hours, because they want to make sure that the

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Speaker 1: fix they put in actually fix the problem, and they

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Speaker 1: have to make sure that the fix they put in

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Speaker 1: doesn't break something else which does happen. Um, here's another

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Speaker 1: thing to throw out there. Besides the fact that yes,

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Speaker 1: the games you're gonna play, aren't gonna necessarily resemble the

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Speaker 1: final product, and yes, uh it's gonna You know, you're

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Speaker 1: not really playing to win, you're playing to make short works.

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Speaker 1: You don't have any real say in what kind of

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Speaker 1: games you're gonna be testing. Nope, but it might be

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Speaker 1: a long time between games. Um. We we actually have

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Speaker 1: an article on the side about this and what I

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Speaker 1: thought it was in uh uh an interesting analogy to

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Speaker 1: compare them to day laborers, because it's sort of like that.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you you could test a game and then

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Speaker 1: if the developer you work with doesn't have anything else

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Speaker 1: for you right now, you're you're gonna have to find

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Speaker 1: another job for a while until there's something else where,

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Speaker 1: you know, find another developer to work with. Yeah, And

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Speaker 1: it maybe that you're thinking, oh, awesome, I'm gonna be

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Speaker 1: working on the next super advanced first person shooter. I

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Speaker 1: can't wait. And then you find out your first assignment

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Speaker 1: is to test out my little kitten, and you have

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Speaker 1: to make sure that the kitten and my little kitten

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Speaker 1: behaves the right way and there's no problems, and and

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Speaker 1: that's your job for testing this game day and day

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Speaker 1: out for the next like three days. Um, you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm I'm a little upset because the AI and my

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Speaker 1: Little Kitten was awesome. Yeah. Uh, well I could never

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Speaker 1: get past the part where it just started to chunk

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Speaker 1: mice's mices mices at you. So for extemporaneous attempts again,

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Speaker 1: we'll just count that as a fail. So we'll call

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Speaker 1: that a Josh and Chuck moment. Uh. The So, yeah,

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Speaker 1: so you don't have any necessarily an you say, in

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Speaker 1: what kind of games you're gonna be playing? Uh? Now

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Speaker 1: that all all that being said, testing video games is

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Speaker 1: a very important part of the process, and it can

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Speaker 1: be a way to get into the video game industry,

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Speaker 1: although in order to do that, you you kind of

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Speaker 1: also need to have some background at least in your

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Speaker 1: school work to um, to suggest that you know, you

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Speaker 1: could move on to to perhaps become a developer or

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Speaker 1: an artist or you know, uh, you know, sound design

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Speaker 1: or something. Um. It's it's a lot harder to move

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Speaker 1: into those fields if you don't have the education to

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Speaker 1: back it up. But video game testing can be a

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Speaker 1: way to get into that, yes, um, and it helps

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Speaker 1: to be as professional as possible, you know, tell if

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Speaker 1: you're really seriously interested in this don't act, you know,

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Speaker 1: like you're just happy to play the game. Say, look,

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Speaker 1: I'm really interested in the development and learning more about

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Speaker 1: the processes of coding and developing this game. Further, I'm

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Speaker 1: really interested in user experience and making sure that the

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Speaker 1: players enjoy this game. Um, and the mechanics behind it.

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Speaker 1: And you know that's gonna that's gonna take you a

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Speaker 1: lot farther than going who I Got the latest shooter? Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And a lot of the the ads online for things

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Speaker 1: like especially for the web services that say that if

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Speaker 1: you sign up with them, you you'll get a leg

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Speaker 1: up in the industry. Um, A lot of them might

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Speaker 1: suggest that you could play even from home. So now

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Speaker 1: you're now you've got the ultimate fantasy. Right, You're sitting

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Speaker 1: at home. You don't even have to get dressed. You

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Speaker 1: just sit there, turn on the TV, start playing those games,

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Speaker 1: and and you know you're living the high life. In reality,

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Speaker 1: most of these video game companies require their game testers

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Speaker 1: to come in and test the games, because that way

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Speaker 1: they can work side by side with the developers and say,

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Speaker 1: all right, well, here's the problem. Here's the situation that

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Speaker 1: it comes up in uh, and uh, you know I

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Speaker 1: I was able to repeat the problem, so it's clear

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Speaker 1: that it's not just you know, a weird little glitch

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Speaker 1: that happened the one time. Um, and usually you're working,

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Speaker 1: you know, with a team of people who are working

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Speaker 1: on that one game. So it's not like you are this,

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Speaker 1: you know, this gamer sitting at home who just gets

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Speaker 1: paid to play games. Yeah. Actually that's a that's a

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Speaker 1: good point. We should talk about how much you could

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Speaker 1: make as a professional game tester, and and there's really

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Speaker 1: a broad range. Yeah, there is. Uh, in general, most

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Speaker 1: of them are paid on an hourly basis, and that

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Speaker 1: hourly basis when you start off, can be nine to

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Speaker 1: twelve dollars an hour, which is not that much, especially

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Speaker 1: when you keep in mind that you do not necessarily

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Speaker 1: have steady work. Yeah. Yeah, I mean you can make

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Speaker 1: as much as I've seen a hundred dollars an hour,

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Speaker 1: but that's really for advanced to testers. It tends to

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Speaker 1: be like game game tester leads, the people who who

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Speaker 1: are really in charge of coordinating with the developer team

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Speaker 1: and the testers to make sure that everything is is

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Speaker 1: running smoothly. Um. Yeah, so if you're looking at an

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Speaker 1: annual salary, I've seen ranges from everything around twenty thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars a year, which is not that great, to uh

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Speaker 1: around uh you know upboards of the eighty nine thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars a year, which is that's a lot of money,

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Speaker 1: especially when you're thinking about testing video games. Well for me,

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Speaker 1: that's a lot of money. And and you could be, Um,

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Speaker 1: when I was poking around two, you could be sort

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Speaker 1: of a low level tester in uh. You know, I

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Speaker 1: saw that Microsoft actually has people come in and basically

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Speaker 1: they'll give you a copy of the game if you'll

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Speaker 1: if you're willing to try it out. I would imagine that, Uh,

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Speaker 1: in those types of situations, it's like, Hey, we're going

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Speaker 1: live with this, We're planning and going live with this

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Speaker 1: in a week. We really want as many people to

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Speaker 1: come in and play this game as possible. If you

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Speaker 1: come in, we'll give you a copy of the game. Um,

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Speaker 1: that's not what I would consider like professional game testers,

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Speaker 1: but you know, if you're interested in trying it out,

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Speaker 1: it might give you an opportunity to do that. And

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Speaker 1: if you've ever seen the chance to sign up for

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Speaker 1: beta testing, beta testing can open it up to the

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Speaker 1: public sometimes not just you know, like some some companies

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Speaker 1: will do all their beta testing. Now, beta is the

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Speaker 1: build before you go gold, Yeah, which is when gold

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Speaker 1: Master is basically, this is a copy of the disc

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Speaker 1: that we're going to send to be duplicated, right, So yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's it's. It's usually sort of the non the the

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Speaker 1: version that doesn't have a name, than Alpha, than Beta,

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Speaker 1: than gold Maker. M it would have to be it's

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Speaker 1: the last one, so bet, but it should be UM.

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Speaker 1: But so a beta test beta build is supposed to

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Speaker 1: be as close to the final build as possible, although

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Speaker 1: there could still be problems that the ideas that it's

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Speaker 1: it is not locked into place, but it should be

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Speaker 1: what you would experience when you get hold of the

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Speaker 1: final copy UM in a perfect world. Anyway, in a

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Speaker 1: perfect world, you would not have to make any changes

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Speaker 1: to a beta copy and you would just go gold

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Speaker 1: from their companies will open this up to the general public,

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Speaker 1: and the reasoning behind it's pretty pretty simple. Yeah. So

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Speaker 1: the idea here is that you've got a lot of

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Speaker 1: players who are eager to play this particular game, and

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Speaker 1: you open up the beta testing to them, They're going

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Speaker 1: to play the heck out of the game in a

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Speaker 1: short period of time and if they see anything that's wrong,

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Speaker 1: they'll let you know. Uh, and you don't have to

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Speaker 1: pay them, so you no longer have to worry about

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Speaker 1: testers at that point. Now, before you get to that point,

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Speaker 1: you still need testers. It's not like you magically arrive

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Speaker 1: at the beta build without having tested your product before

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Speaker 1: that point. But it does mean that the testing process

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Speaker 1: doesn't have to be in house as long. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: it's not as not really as as formal UM. I've

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Speaker 1: beta tested a couple UM programs in the past, and

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Speaker 1: generally they just ask you to send in an email

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Speaker 1: whenever you have a problem. You know that you need

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Speaker 1: to report. The funny thing is, I mean you know

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Speaker 1: that it's not like they in on you and go, hey,

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Speaker 1: so how's that testing going, right? UM? Although uh, you

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Speaker 1: know it does sound informal to do this, to have

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Speaker 1: the beta testers and you know, hey, you can try

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Speaker 1: out the program a week before UM it goes gold

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Speaker 1: and you know I'll have it three or four weeks

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Speaker 1: before it's on the shelves. Well, you know, it could

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Speaker 1: give you a leg up again on trying to get

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Speaker 1: in the door, because some of them, even for the

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Speaker 1: beta testing phase, have said, you know, have asked me,

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Speaker 1: have you ever beta tested a program before? And UM,

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Speaker 1: you know, if you could say, hey, I've I've beta

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Speaker 1: tested five or six programs. Now I'm interested in getting

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Speaker 1: in the industry that might give you the opportunity to

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Speaker 1: move up to be a professional level tester. Right. And

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Speaker 1: the other reason a lot of these companies do beta

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Speaker 1: beta testing I should have pointed this out to a

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Speaker 1: lot of them are for games that have an online component,

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Speaker 1: and so you have to load test, right. You have

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Speaker 1: to make sure that your servers are going to be

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Speaker 1: able to handle the kind of play that players are

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Speaker 1: gonna put them through, and so beta test is really

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Speaker 1: important to make sure that you know the infrastructure you've built.

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Speaker 1: Can actually so poor at the player base, not really

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Speaker 1: the end users game so much as it is the

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Speaker 1: back end of the game exact. So uh So, playtesters

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Speaker 1: tend to not make too much money when they start off.

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Speaker 1: They don't have a lot of saying what they get

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Speaker 1: to do. Um, they're not necessarily playing games that are

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Speaker 1: uh in their interest area, they're not necessarily playing them

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Speaker 1: the way they would want to. Um. But at the

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Speaker 1: same time, they are an integral part of video game

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Speaker 1: development and can go on to to really become a

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Speaker 1: bigger part of the industry. You know, I thought of

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Speaker 1: another minor but really big kill joy for those who

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Speaker 1: want to be professional gamers. You can't talk about it

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Speaker 1: because you're gonna have to sign a nondisclosure agreement formal

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Speaker 1: a formal legal agreement saying you know, I'm not going

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Speaker 1: to talk about this game. Um, so you can't. It's

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Speaker 1: not like you can go hang out with your buddies

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Speaker 1: and go you should see this thing. You know, there's

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Speaker 1: this thing on level five. You can't do that. This

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Speaker 1: game has got m pchanics that that you know, our

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Speaker 1: brand new and have never been seen in the video

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Speaker 1: game industry. You wouldn't be able to talk about that either,

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Speaker 1: or even you know, this thing is the biggest piece

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Speaker 1: of junk that will ever grace the shelves, or even

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00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:16,200
Speaker 1: in some cases this thing exists. In some cases, you

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Speaker 1: wouldn't even be able to mention the name of it.

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Speaker 1: So so that makes it a little less fun too. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but now that's not to say that video game testers

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Speaker 1: never have any fun. We're just trying to to dispel

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Speaker 1: some of the myths about the whole industry. Because you

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Speaker 1: sit there and you think about, hey, I would love

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Speaker 1: to be able to PLoP this disk in my Xbox

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Speaker 1: and play all day and then get paid for it. Um. No,

394
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Speaker 1: it's a job. Yeah, it's It's a job like other jobs,

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Speaker 1: And like other jobs, there are times where you want

396
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Speaker 1: to strangle your coworker, like when he's looking at his iPad.

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Speaker 1: I'm just this is an example. No, but you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe video game reviewer. Now you're talking. Actually, video game

399
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Speaker 1: reviewers do a lot of the same stuff the video

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Speaker 1: game testers, due to not just I mean they'll play

401
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Speaker 1: through a game to play through it, but they'll also

402
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Speaker 1: play to look for things like obvious glitches, things that

403
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Speaker 1: break the game. I mean, video game reviewers do the

404
00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:10,800
Speaker 1: same sort of stuff as well. But you don't have to,

405
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Speaker 1: you know, go along the sides of the walls and

406
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Speaker 1: turn it off and turn it on. No, you could

407
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Speaker 1: if you really want to be thorough. But I don't

408
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Speaker 1: know any video game reviewer who's that thorough. Two years

409
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Speaker 1: after the game came out, I probably finished my review, right.

410
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Speaker 1: Um yeah, now that now that the machines that run

411
00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:30,800
Speaker 1: it are obsolete, well, uh, speaking of the machines that

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Speaker 1: run it, Yes, we wanted to address something. We've had

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Speaker 1: several listeners right in uh about the PlayStation three and

414
00:20:39,080 --> 00:20:41,200
Speaker 1: changes that have happened to it. Yeah, because we talked

415
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Speaker 1: about it not too long ago. Yeah, about how the

416
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Speaker 1: military was purchasing hundreds of p S three's in order

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Speaker 1: to link them together and make a supercomputer. Well, that's

418
00:20:49,119 --> 00:20:52,679
Speaker 1: only possible because you could take a PlayStation three and

419
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Speaker 1: install another operating system on it, such as Right and

420
00:20:56,600 --> 00:20:59,960
Speaker 1: the Cell. The Cell processor allowed you to to link

421
00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:03,200
Speaker 1: them together if you had the right software. Um. Well,

422
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Speaker 1: Sony decided to discontinue support of the other OS feature

423
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Speaker 1: with its most recent firmware update. So here's the thing.

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Speaker 1: If you own a an old laystation three, you know

425
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Speaker 1: this is pre Slim because the Slim didn't support the

426
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Speaker 1: Linux operating system out of the gate. You couldn't put

427
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Speaker 1: the Linux OS on a out of the box Slim

428
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Speaker 1: unless you hacked it first. So Sony is essentially telling

429
00:21:35,080 --> 00:21:39,439
Speaker 1: you you have a choice, your choices. You can either

430
00:21:40,600 --> 00:21:43,760
Speaker 1: install the new firmware update, which will take away your

431
00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:47,640
Speaker 1: ability to have another operating system on your p S three,

432
00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:50,560
Speaker 1: but in return, you will be able to do things

433
00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:54,320
Speaker 1: like access to PlayStation network and be able to run

434
00:21:55,080 --> 00:21:58,439
Speaker 1: any games that require that particular firmware or any movies

435
00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:02,520
Speaker 1: that require that particular firmware. UM or you can not

436
00:22:03,119 --> 00:22:06,479
Speaker 1: update your PS three, continue the support of the other os,

437
00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:08,919
Speaker 1: but you no longer have access to the PlayStation network

438
00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:11,280
Speaker 1: or any games that might rely on the firmware in

439
00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:14,639
Speaker 1: the future. So, no matter what, you're gonna lose functionality

440
00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:17,159
Speaker 1: on your PS three. There's no way to avoid it,

441
00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:20,560
Speaker 1: actually without hacking it. What are you about to say

442
00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:23,120
Speaker 1: that hacking it? I was no, no, I was going

443
00:22:23,200 --> 00:22:25,320
Speaker 1: to tell you this is something I found is I

444
00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:28,040
Speaker 1: was as we were talking about it, was looking up

445
00:22:28,119 --> 00:22:31,000
Speaker 1: video game testers and I ran across this and since

446
00:22:31,040 --> 00:22:33,760
Speaker 1: we were going to talk about the PlayStation three incident.

447
00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:37,000
Speaker 1: According to the blog, I'm not even sure I'm pronouncing

448
00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:42,240
Speaker 1: this right, but Marison readings UM. Amazon in Britain offered

449
00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:46,200
Speaker 1: one of its customers a about refund for a PlayStation

450
00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:51,520
Speaker 1: three because of European Directive one slash forty four slash

451
00:22:51,560 --> 00:22:55,800
Speaker 1: e C. Because ce the item must be bought exactly

452
00:22:55,800 --> 00:22:57,800
Speaker 1: as the seller says and has to be fit for

453
00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:01,920
Speaker 1: the purpose that the consumer needs, and the seller has

454
00:23:01,960 --> 00:23:04,119
Speaker 1: to you know, know that it is according to the

455
00:23:04,119 --> 00:23:06,119
Speaker 1: customer needs at the time of purchase. And I'm probably

456
00:23:06,160 --> 00:23:09,520
Speaker 1: oversimplifying that, but it's you know, legal ease. Now, the

457
00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:13,960
Speaker 1: thing is that Sony changed the features by changing the

458
00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:17,760
Speaker 1: firmware so it was not serving the customers needs anymore,

459
00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:21,600
Speaker 1: and uh, thereby altering the function of the console and

460
00:23:21,760 --> 00:23:26,920
Speaker 1: making it in violation of this statute. Well, Amazon provided

461
00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:29,880
Speaker 1: the refund, which it from what I can tell, probably

462
00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:32,880
Speaker 1: isn't going to pass on back to Sony. But uh,

463
00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:35,400
Speaker 1: this may start a precedent for people saying, this isn't

464
00:23:35,440 --> 00:23:38,320
Speaker 1: what I bought and under this law, you know, you

465
00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:40,760
Speaker 1: owe me money back. And Amazon is not asking for

466
00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:45,160
Speaker 1: the console back. But you know, there was no report

467
00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:47,560
Speaker 1: as to whether or not it was still fit for

468
00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:50,919
Speaker 1: use for other purposes or whether it was just you know,

469
00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:53,919
Speaker 1: recycled at that point. But yeah, they've got a partial

470
00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:56,880
Speaker 1: refund because Sony said, you know, changed the firmware and

471
00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:01,439
Speaker 1: the customer was no longer allowed to uh install Linux

472
00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:05,720
Speaker 1: on it with that firmware updated. Place. In the case

473
00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:09,400
Speaker 1: of the U S Military and the various research facilities

474
00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:12,200
Speaker 1: that are around, they're using currently using the PS three

475
00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:15,439
Speaker 1: as a processor. Uh, they can get around this just

476
00:24:15,480 --> 00:24:17,960
Speaker 1: by not updating the firmware. And I don't see why

477
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:20,400
Speaker 1: they would update the firmware. There's no reason to do

478
00:24:20,480 --> 00:24:22,680
Speaker 1: that if if they're using it as a processor other

479
00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:24,600
Speaker 1: than to play games, which are not supposed to be

480
00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:28,199
Speaker 1: doing on these things. Totally shocked down my argument. But

481
00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:31,760
Speaker 1: it is the US military, so come on, let's be serious. Um, well,

482
00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:34,119
Speaker 1: they do. They do have consoles, but generally not the

483
00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:37,359
Speaker 1: ones that they're using for you know, crunching numbers, So

484
00:24:37,560 --> 00:24:40,879
Speaker 1: they can get around this by not updating the firmware. However,

485
00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:43,800
Speaker 1: it does mean that what they have is what they're

486
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:46,600
Speaker 1: they're stuck with, right. They're not gonna buy more PS

487
00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:49,040
Speaker 1: three's now because they aren't gonna work on that system

488
00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:52,119
Speaker 1: and something else. And if the PS three breaks, or

489
00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:54,560
Speaker 1: when a PS three breaks, you've just lost part of

490
00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:57,639
Speaker 1: your system, you know. I mean, if you can repair

491
00:24:57,680 --> 00:24:59,960
Speaker 1: it yourself or you can get someone else to repair

492
00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:02,480
Speaker 1: so it's working exactly the way it was before, you're fine.

493
00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:05,280
Speaker 1: But you can't just purchase a new one because it's

494
00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:09,000
Speaker 1: not gonna run the the the os you need. So

495
00:25:09,040 --> 00:25:12,239
Speaker 1: that's a real bummer. Um, I'm not going to make

496
00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:15,600
Speaker 1: a judgment here. I'm just gonna say I own the

497
00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:18,760
Speaker 1: next plus three sixty. Um, well, you know it has

498
00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:21,960
Speaker 1: left a lot of PlayStation three fans upset, even people

499
00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:25,200
Speaker 1: who weren't doing this. Well again, anytime you take away

500
00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 1: functionality of a device that had traditionally supported a certain feature,

501
00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:33,240
Speaker 1: you're gonna upset the customer base, even if those people

502
00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:36,520
Speaker 1: never used that feature the But what if I wanted

503
00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:39,600
Speaker 1: to exactly well, I mean, I'm the same way. I can't.

504
00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:42,040
Speaker 1: I can't judge those folks. I'd be the same way

505
00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:44,760
Speaker 1: if if I were told, for example, that let's say

506
00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:47,760
Speaker 1: that my phone updated tomorrow and I found out that

507
00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:50,600
Speaker 1: it no longer supported some feature that I had never used,

508
00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:54,280
Speaker 1: I'd still be like, what, why did you take that away?

509
00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:57,600
Speaker 1: That thing that I don't use? How dare you? But yeah,

510
00:25:57,640 --> 00:26:00,440
Speaker 1: but it happens. It happens. I demands as fact, and Sarah,

511
00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:04,040
Speaker 1: I shall see you at dawn. Um, all right, well,

512
00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:09,760
Speaker 1: then be a dual boot system. Well done, Mr Pilette.

513
00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:12,680
Speaker 1: On that note, I think we can wrap this up

514
00:26:13,119 --> 00:26:15,160
Speaker 1: all right, guys, Well, if you have any questions about

515
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:19,360
Speaker 1: any other let's say, jobs in the tech industry, if

516
00:26:19,359 --> 00:26:21,880
Speaker 1: you got the questions about that sind o, men, if

517
00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:24,239
Speaker 1: you have any questions about video games, send dozen. If

518
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:26,280
Speaker 1: you have questions about tech in general, send oz in,

519
00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:31,439
Speaker 1: uh puns send to Pilette and uh We'll remember. The

520
00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:34,480
Speaker 1: address is tech stuff at how stuff works dot com.

521
00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:37,400
Speaker 1: We do have an article on the site about video

522
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:39,280
Speaker 1: game testers, so you can check that out how stuff

523
00:26:39,280 --> 00:26:41,119
Speaker 1: works dot com and Chris and I will talk to

524
00:26:41,119 --> 00:26:47,240
Speaker 1: you again really soon. If you're a tech stuff and

525
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Speaker 1: be sure to check us out on Twitter text stuff

526
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Speaker 1: hs wsr handle, and you can also find us on

527
00:26:53,240 --> 00:26:56,760
Speaker 1: Facebook at Facebook dot com slash tech stuff h s W.

528
00:26:58,400 --> 00:27:00,960
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit

529
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:03,400
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com and be sure to check

530
00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:05,440
Speaker 1: out the new tech stuff blog now on the House

531
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Speaker 1: stuff Works homepage, brought to you by the reinvented two

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