(Warning: Twitter link) https://twitter.com/BethesdaStudios/status/1691827163299754093v
Transcription:
Prepare for launch. Starfield has gone gold! Preloads begin tomorrow for Xbox X|S and Windows PC and August 30 for Steam.
(Warning: Twitter link) https://twitter.com/BethesdaStudios/status/1691827163299754093v
Transcription:
Prepare for launch. Starfield has gone gold! Preloads begin tomorrow for Xbox X|S and Windows PC and August 30 for Steam.
I really wouldn’t put much stock into it. Seems like a new buzzword everyone’s trying to use. Seems like they’re borrowing a term from gold images in the OS world.
Really it just means that they have a version that runs and they’re going to push that out now, well they work on the first patch now. It being gold does not exclude it from a necessary day one patch.
It’s not a new term. Going gold for a game is a term that I have heard since at least the early 2000s. I doubt it was new then, just probably when I first heard it.
It used to mean it’s the version that is going to be burned to the discs that you buy, which was a huge deal before downloadable updates. But I’m sure now it means it is the version they are uploading to Steam, PS store, Xbox store, etc.
My point was that they could have waited until two days before release, and if they were still fixing issues, they would have. The rule of thumb is the earlier something goes gold, the more stable the game is. It’s not perfect, but it is a trend.