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While I patiently wait for this game, I wonder, how is this game considered "Gold", it hasn't shipped yet. I thought gold represented a 100,000 copies sold? This was probably answered elsewhere, but I was just wondering.

ORIGINAL: randell765

While I patiently wait for this game, I wonder, how is this game considered "Gold", it hasn't shipped yet. I thought gold represented a 100,000 copies sold?

I thought "Gold" meant that a game has finished programming/testing and is in production and that "Released" represented those 100,000 copies sold.

Going "gold" is where the actual game code is delivered to be placed on cd's and DVD's. The process USUALLY takes 2 weeks from "going gold" to when the game is on the shelf.

I also used to think going Gold meant a minimum limit of copies were sold. I guess through time the meaning got changed as companies found out the sooner a product is labeled as going gold, the more the people would trust it.

I believe the "Gold = 100,000 units sold" applies only to the recording industry. In the software industry it has always meant production ready code.

In software "Going Gold" refers to the master CD being released to the manufacturer. I guess the master CD is gold in colour for some reason.

In the old days, that is exactly it - the "master CD used to duplicate from was a "very high quality"one that actually was made of an ultra high quality material that was gold in color - you did not want to use a flawed disc to copy 10s of thousands of copies from, so the "gold colored ultra high quality" one had the final game burnt on it for duplication.

So when you "froze the code" and compiled the "1.0" installer you burnt it "on gold" or "went gold" with it - meaning prodution was commencing.

Interesting tidbit. Sounds somewhat misleading without this little bit of history [;)]