Valve is another company that spends a lot of time on playtesting, and they know what to do and not do with the feedback they get from it, which really shows in their amazing games.
I think a few terms are getting confused here though...
QA = Quality Assurance, i.e. making sure the game doesn't break, doesn't have bugs, has sensible menu's, conforms to platform holder and publisher specifications, has correct subtitles, etc. etc.
Playtesting = watching people play as a means of improving the gameplay itself
Prototyping = creating simplified versions of a game, for instance as a board game, so the designer can cheaply and effectively work on the mechanics without being distracted by production issues
Paper prototypes are huge fun to make, by the way. I've done GDC workshops that involved a lot of paper prototyping, and have applied these methods in my game design work on a few occasions, and it's really fun to see how you can abstract down a complex computer game to a very pure and whole board game. At least, if you are able to do that, you know the core of the computer game will be pretty solid.
I agree the game industry could use more playtesting. I also think it could use less focus testing (or none at all). Ask people what they want and you're only going to find out what they want that they already know, not what they want but don't yet know they want...
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