Going Gold/Platinum

[~Mobius~]

I've often wondered, what exactly does it mean when you hear a game has gone gold or gone platinum before its released?

 

[Testin da Cable]

I believe "going gold" means the master cd has been pressed. not sure though.

 

[]SK[]

Im unsure also, good question. TDC sounds right though.

 

[SilverHood]

gold just means the cd's are being printed (the cds going in boxes and sent to the retailers)

platinum has something to do with sales... 1 million I think it is

 

[Will]

It means the code has been frozen for release, and normally declared version 1.0

Any changes after going gold would be applied in the first patch.

 

[SilverHood]

doesn't apply to MMO games usually

 

[xane]

"Going Gold" comes from the release of Quake III.

Apparently John Carmack went out and bought gold plated hubcaps for his Ferrari F50 once Quake III was released.

No, I just made that up.

I believe it originates from the days of vinyl discs where the master disc was gold plated and ready from pressing.

 

[Swift^]

There's silver too.

Depends on company - mostly it is just a term of phrase - gold being it's ready for print etc.

Some companies do this with a gold cd (master), some don't.