Civ III close to going Gold!

[Grumbold]

Once it's gold any remaining bugs are going to ship on the CD. All they can do is get writing the day 1 patch release

Even in this day and age it does tale a little time to turn one master CD into a couple of hundred thousand shiny boxed and cellophane wrapped products headed for the stores.

[squid]

err, no

Originally posted by Darkknight
Gone Gold means that the game is finished and that the publishers can now start copying the game to CD right?

actually it means they have stopped adding new features and will correct any defects testing brings up.... so the product is done and just getting last minute bug fixes before release.

at least, that's what "gold" means to my company.

gold does not mean "ship". "ship" means "ship".

[Moral Hazard]

squid:
Gold = Gold master to be reproduced.
Beta is usually for feature freeze and bugs. Of course this is for games vs. apps where they have longer betas and very well might call thier last Beta, gold.

[Nemo]

alpha, beta, gold all described here.

also, it appears as if Civ is literally days from going gold! this is great!

[Sarxis]

Is it now? IS IT??!!

Oh, yeah.. it is..


If the game goes gold within the next two weeks, do you think they will ship it out sooner?

[Solver]

I am now just trying to guess will it be released 17th or 30th. I sure hope for 17th, as that would mean Less than two weeks . I'll play Civ 3 October, Yay!

[Sarxis]

Where did you see a date of 17th Solver? Recently?

[Solver]

No, not recently, but it has been the most often mentioned date of Civ 3 released actually before October.
My take on the game is: have it released, get a pirate disk, and wait for the real game to arrive, then get that! Look, real civ 3 won't arrive soon in Europe, while pirate disks (somehow) arrive just a week after the game is released. But everyone buy the real game, after that! Be nice guys...

I'm, though, going to believe release date set by Firaxis. Where is it?

[tniem]

Originally posted by SerapisIV
I figure that question will be anwsered a) this Friday in ask-the-team or b) when someone atually gets the game in-hand. But then again, I'm just guessing.

A) I can accept. But I would like to know soon. I need to figure out how I am going to pay for it if it has MP and if not I will have to figure out whether I will buy it anyways. As a college student thats only cash goes for pizza, this is going to be a tough call.

B) That is just plain crap. To have to wait until the game comes out just doesn't make me very happy. Please tell us Firaxis.

[Earthling7]

A lot of people are pre-ordering. That, and orders from stores, should easily get the game into Gold territory. I wonder if that has anything to do with release date. Doubt it.

Does anyone know how many copies it takes to reach gold?

< hmmm... looks as if I read this x-eyed > - Still, a thought.

I have always thought of this as a glass master, but that comes afterwards, I suppose...

[tniem]

Originally posted by Earthling7
A lot of people are pre-ordering. That, and orders from stores, should easily get the game into Gold territory. I wonder if that has anything to do with release date. Doubt it.

Does anyone know how many copies it takes to reach gold?

You are missing the entire point of what going gold is. It is not how many you sell, it means that the game is complete.

Going gold is a term for burning the master disk that is then duplicated to be shipped to all the potential buyers and those that pre-ordered. So it has nothing to do with sales, going gold means the game is done. Hopefully you got it now.

[Earthling7]

Originally posted by tniem
You are missing the entire point of what going gold is. It is not how many you sell, it means that the game is complete.

Uh... maybe you would like to read the lower part of my post, the one you didn't quote. Thanks for pointing it out though

[Nemo]

well, its definatly not teh 17th...there is only 12 dyas until then, and Gold -> stores takes at least 14 days.

well, i guess it is the 30th

[Provost Harrison]

Yeah, 30th seems like the expected date for the game, unless there is some kind of delay in release and/or completing the game.

[Nemo]

ummm....what happens if there are more than 75,000 pre-orders for the LE?