The video game industry has its own jargon and it is normal that little by little these expressions penetrate until they reach the users themselves. Or have you not ever heard that such a game is in Beta phase, or Alpha and pre-Alpha, and that tells us that its developers are still programming and changing important details of its concept? Well, today we are going to explain another of those terms that are used a lot: the one in this game is already Gold.
No, it’s not about Xbox Live Gold
Indeed, although we say it as a joke, it is not a game that falls within the ones that Microsoft gives away with its Xbox Live Gold, since the term generally affects the entire industry. That is to say, all the development studios express themselves in the same way and mean exactly the same thing when they use the expression that “this game is already Gold”. And what does it mean? Well , one of the moments of greatest joy that a development studio can experience .
This is so because the Gold version of a game is the one that is used to send to the factory that produces the Blu-ray (or DVD, CD-ROM, cartridges and cassettes at the time) to duplicate them and start production of the game before to go on sale on the announced date. In other words, it is the definitive version that we will all have in our hands when we go to the store to buy the game. An example of that epic and exciting moment for a study is, for example, the one that Neil Druckman announced on his Twitter on the occasion that Uncharted 4 was already Gold.
Every journey must come to an end. #gold #uncharted4 pic.twitter.com/hdEF50hj3E
— Neil Druckmann (@Neil_Druckmann) March 19, 2016
In the image of the disk you can see important information, such as the release candidate (RC) number, or the internal serial number of the game that has been used within the PlayStation universe since the 90s, and that acts as a kind of identifier: SCEA_17 (Sony Computer Entertainment America), plus a closing date of March 2016 (the game came out on May 10).
Now, the same thing does not happen with digital distribution and that Gold version is still anecdotal, because production times are infinitely shorter and allow the team to correct possible bugs that continue to exist within the Gold versions. Hence the day one (launch) patches that are already incorporated into the version that we download from the digital store when we prefer that format over the physical one.
Where does the expression come from?
The video game industry also adopted this expression that came from the world of music where they also worked on the basis of obtaining a duplication master, which in times was gold, hence its origin.
Those common processes that for years accompanied video games and the music industry (for example in the 80s with cassette tapes, or already in the 90s with Compact Discs) left the expression that a project has reached the Gold version and, therefore, it is now ready to be manufactured and produced in sufficient quantities to take it to stores and that gamers, in this case, can get hold of.
