Same game, very different platform. The Wii version of FIFA 13 still ran on motion controls, which meant a completely separate certification pass from its Wii U sibling. By 2012, testing a Wii title had its own rhythm — a well-worn process, but no less thorough for it. Every region, every rating board, every control scheme.
Back in the day, before studios started shipping bugs as features, I worked through the full certification process on the other side of the screen — testing games for Electronic Arts. Certification & compliance, which sounds dry but basically means being the last line of defense before a game hits the shelves: making sure it doesn’t crash, doesn’t cheat the rating system, and does exactly what it says on the box in every region it’s going to land in.
It wasn’t glamorous work, but it gave me something most designers never get: a really intimate understanding of how games break, and why. Every bug report I filed was a small lesson in the gap between intention and execution — which, turns out, is pretty much what design is about too.
