What does "gone GOLD" mean?

[Platinum]

Sorry guys,

I've heard of all this bull about doom 3 going gold??? What the heck does that mean??? And why will we all be "really excited" :hmph: Also, what does SDK stand for? I'm not a nub in the game world but I just dont know what going gold means or what the SDK is! ... thanks guys :cheers:

 

[Harryz]

Gold means the games is completely finished, no more development needed and its up to the publishers now to release/distribute the game.

 

[Computer5k]

Gonig gold means the game is approved for production, and SDK is Software Developement Kit.

 

[czrsink]

It's when the release candidate is approved by the publisher. A 'gold master' is made and then the CDs are magically turned into the DVD style box packages that you see on your local game store shelf.

I think it's because CDs used to be gold coloured as well (when they first came out)*

*This may not be strictly true

 

[guise]

i remember when i thought the term meant going gold as in the music industry, as in selling however many hundred thousand copies.

which always bemused me cz games always seemed to go gold before they were even released :upstare:

lollllll @ me

 

[ShinRa]

i wonder how the mass production and manufacturing works? I mean how do they get all those copies so fast off of one cd?

 

[Platinum]

wow thx

wow! thanks guys : D ... for not flaming me that is ... i appreciate it ... i come here all the time but I dont really post too often , or even at all ... but i'll try to post more now that im into it a little more ... pretty great community here ... thx guys :cheers:

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

wow! thanks guys : D ... for not flaming me that is ... i appreciate it ... i come here all the time but I dont really post too often , or even at all ... but i'll try to post more now that im into it a little more ... pretty great community here ... thx guys :cheers:

and..

Welcome To The Forums!

 

[AgentXen]

They have a copying farm, inside a big whearhouse were they do all the burning.
Thousands at a time.
If i remember correctly they can only do about 250,000 copies a day.

 

[czrsink]

And that's just on the Russian Black Market... 6 months before the official release date.

 

[pixartist]

i remember when i thought the term meant going gold as in the music industry, as in selling however many hundred thousand copies.

which always bemused me cz games always seemed to go gold before they were even released :upstare:

lollllll @ me

ROFL :E
....

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Well, what does RC mean then?

 

[JimmehH]

They have a copying farm, inside a big whearhouse were they do all the burning.
Thousands at a time.
If i remember correctly they can only do about 250,000 copies a day.

I believe they actually press a series of pits into the metal film on the disc when they're mass manufacturing CDs or DVDs. It's a lot more economical than using writeable ones as they use special (and comparatively expensive) chemicals/plastics that change their properties when exposed to the laser light in a CD writer.

RC stands for release candidate. It means that the makers have something they think is ready to be sold, so they send it to the publishers who do their own testing and then they decide if they think it's ready to be sold. If it's not they tell the makers what to improve.

 

[ShinRa]

release candidate.

 

[Shuzer]

and..

Welcome To The Forums!

lol, you did it the exact same way you said in the moderator thread! :O

Welcome! Enjoy your stay man :cheers:

 

[sHm0zY]

Welcome! I hope you dont get flamed as much as some of the n00bs here

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

lol, you did it the exact same way you said in the moderator thread! :O

Welcome! Enjoy your stay man :cheers:

lol, Check some of my more recent posts, I do this to every new member I see now.

 

[Platinum]

mer. ..

merrr ... i dont wanna get flamed ... **** that man lol ... :dozey: ... anyway ... im not no noober uber or whatever some people might call me ... god i cant wait for hl2 ... for the record - please stop baggin' on the "not up to your standards" qualities in hl2 ... I think valve and them would appreciate it ... not to mention its really annoying and decreases the excitement for the release ... peace <3 :cheers:

 

[noah]

The master CD, from which all of the retail copies are replicated from in the duplication plants is also literally made of gold backing for quality/precision purposes, hence the term "gone gold".

 

[Jarman]

A pretty clear explanation:

A Release Candidate is actually a pretty polished, nice Beta Version which the developers see fit for releasing it to the customers.
This definition includes:
to some degree flawlessness(customer should not notice bugs at first and second sight);
content completeness (beta version definition);
package completeness (the product itself contains all the stuff the customer will buy ... netcode if planned, gimmicks, menu, (installer?, not sure), readme, legal stuff, soundtrack, etc, a preprint or e-version of the manual).

Well..

Now if the devs see that beta fit for release, they call it release candidate and build it clean without debug symbols to not confuse the poor QA's at the publisher's (*giggle*).
Then they burn a "silver" master and send it to the publisher.
The publisher lets loose their Quality Assurance staff, making sure the product is examined form many different point of views.
They also check legal stuff like registered trademarks/logos appearing in game decals etc... (eg. take a texture for a cocacola can...)
They check box art, manual layout and the 'complete picture' the product presents.
They look for severe bugs or bugs that would immediately act as a quality looser for the customer (typos in the intro vid, flipped halflife logo, malfunctioning menu, faulty installer, typos in manual etc).

Basically, the publisher tries the product instead of the real customer.

Meanwhile, the devs do their own QA, communicating with the publisher - incorporating fixes and changes. After a certain period of time where no (new or) severe flaws are found, another RC is build from the old one plus all the improvements. This one is sent to the publisher again.

If the publisher finally gives its OK (the devs naturally only hand out RCs if they are pretty sure they will get their ok immediately, but sometimes, they even refuse the OK, wehn they learn about major flaws ... where was I? oh yes..

if the publisher finally gives its OK on the latest RC,
then the RC is called GOLD(==gold status). the appropriate verb is to go gold =)

at this point the product is considered finished.

a so called "gold master" is made from the gold version.

this gold master is the exact parent of all discs the customers will be buying later.

(exception: multiple versions of one and the same product. this includes: other languages, other packages (collectors edition, bundles, etc...).. each one gets a gold master then.)

well.. this gold master is then sent to the duplication industry for... duplication! (and boxing)

after a good deal of copies is ready, the publisher announces shipping.

shipping means the product is delivered to the stores (and to those who preordered it, if the release date is equal to the shipping date).

the publisher can set a specific date for the release, which is the famous release date.
this date logically is after the shipping date. but having learned from history, the publisher will most likely opt to release it only one or two days after it arrived in stores, since resellers are likely to leak the product before the official release date. (if not all, one out of hundred will leak it. be it within family, to himself or to the "best customers")

oooooook. i'm done. i hope you understood me well enough so I was actually able to answer your question. it's 0214 now.. but i figured i better write down the complete linkage in order to clarify everything straight ahead

if anyone finds mistakes or unexact facts, dont hesitate to comment and correct.

 

[genocide604]

Going gold also means heading to the dentist and getting gold caps on your teeth. Platinum can also be substituted for gold.

 

[GorgeousOrifice]

FYI -- the phrase "going gold" and the adjective "golden" has been software lingo for at least twenty years. No idea what the original idea was, but probably somebody said "Are we golden?" (i.e., in US slang, "are we ready?")

http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/IG/golden.html

 

[JonTheCanuck]

gamers have their own terror alert levels. There's a threat that osama might be hitting valve studios so they had to raise the level. "We've raised the alert level to GOLD!" *GASP*

heres the chart levels
1. pink
2. brown
3. checkered
4. lumberjack plaid
5. gold

 

[DevgruSeal]

Sorry guys,

I've heard of all this bull about doom 3 going gold??? What the heck does that mean??? And why will we all be "really excited" :hmph: Also, what does SDK stand for? I'm not a nub in the game world but I just dont know what going gold means or what the SDK is! ... thanks guys :cheers:

Funny Platinum asks what "gone gold is"

As mentioned before, it means its finished.

You know how gold is so thick, and heavy, and worth A LOT?

Thats how HL2 will be once its gone "gold."

Hence the name gone gold, because its thick, heavy and worth something, meaning gameplay is complete, thick, and heavy.

Get it?

 

[tommie]

Closed.

lol