The Numbers Game – behind the scenes at Microsoft’s Xbox playtesting labs
Scott Butterworth discovers just how much user research goes into the creation of a game like Halo.
Making games fun isn’t just an art: it’s a science. Before the launch of the original Xbox, Microsoft assembled a team of scientists to investigate how people played its games and how it could make them better. Almost 15 years later, it’s built up a gigantic archive of player data – and is using it to improve every game the company publishes. We took a tour of its top-secret labs to find out how it delivers everything from easily-understood menus to the perfect headshot.
