When will this game go "Gold"?

[HypoLuxa13]

I'm mostly just curious, and I suppose only an SCEA employee would have any feedback, but I'm wondering about when the game will go "Gold" and be sent off for printing and shipping and/or staged for digital distribution?

As a fellow software developer (not in the game industry), the number of hoops I would need to jump through to get a change made after a piece of software is considered "finished" is pretty sizable. So obviously a product is "shipped" around the last possible day to allow for last minute changes and still make it to the customer in time.

It seems like a LOT of games go "Gold" about 30 days in advance. But since MLB The Show is:
1) published by Sony itself rather than an outside publisher (such as EA, 2K Sports, etc) and
2) developed by an in-house Sony development team...

...I got to thinking that the cutoff for Sony San Diego to finalized and package up the final code is probably a lot closer to the release date? Maybe only a week or two before March 31st?

Yes, I realize how incredibly nerdy this post is.
Maybe this isn't even the best forum to bring this up...

[RLebron12]

I would definitely say more than a week because working at a retail store we usually get the games sometimes close to a week before the game is released. Sometimes even longer. I would assume their cutoff is last day of February. Just a guess though


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[HozAndMoose]

Quote: Originally Posted by HypoLuxa13

I'm mostly just curious, and I suppose only an SCEA employee would have any feedback, but I'm wondering about when the game will go "Gold" and be sent off for printing and shipping and/or staged for digital distribution? As a fellow software developer (not in the game industry), the number of hoops I would need to jump through to get a change made after a piece of software is considered "finished" is pretty sizable. So obviously a product is "shipped" around the last possible day to allow for last minute changes and still make it to the customer in time. It seems like a LOT of games go "Gold" about 30 days in advance. But since MLB The Show is: 1) published by Sony itself rather than an outside publisher (such as EA, 2K Sports, etc) and 2) developed by an in-house Sony development team... ...I got to thinking that the cutoff for Sony San Diego to finalized and package up the final code is probably a lot closer to the release date? Maybe only a week or two before March 31st? Yes, I realize how incredibly nerdy this post is. Maybe this isn't even the best forum to bring this up...

Definitely more than a week or two. Pretty sure there were people last year that had the game a week before it released. Id assume about 3-4 weeks from now. So March 10th at the latest. Give or take a few days.

Make that 2-3 weeks. Forgot how to count when i looked at the calendar.

[tsbmolina]

With day one patches in this day and age it seems it's kind of irrelevant when a game goes gold. They will be working on it up to release date I'm sure.

[HypoLuxa13]

Quote: Originally Posted by tsbmolina

With day one patches in this day and age it seems it's kind of irrelevant when a game goes gold. They will be working on it up to release date I'm sure.

That is a very good point. Though with many review sites/publications having a policy of reviewing the "1.0" build of games, there is probably a balancing act between getting the game as advanced as possible for release versus shifting over efforts to working on the first patch. Gotta find the sweet spot. Something 2K missed the mark on pretty noticeably with NBA 2k15 - just look at all of the mediocre reviews and scores due to issues that have now been patched.

[A_Quiet_Pro]

I'm usually the one bringing the Gold issue up LOL.... Anyways... I checked the ESRB site, and 15 is officially listed up there, so the games already gold, OR VERY close. (I think the latter)... Personally I think the game will go gold around March 5-10. Give them time to final tweak anything, then 3 weeks to copy and ship. (Also given how the game will undoubtedly be in the hands of the early usual suspects). I'd say this time frame is close...

[tsbmolina]

Quote: Originally Posted by HypoLuxa13

That is a very good point. Though with many review sites/publications having a policy of reviewing the "1.0" build of games, there is probably a balancing act between getting the game as advanced as possible for release versus shifting over efforts to working on the first patch. Gotta find the sweet spot. Something 2K missed the mark on pretty noticeably with NBA 2k15 - just look at all of the mediocre reviews and scores due to issues that have now been patched.

Very true, if NBA 2K15 was reviewed now it would probably score a 90 on metacritic as oppose to the 83 average it now enjoys.

[nemesis04]

As long as it gets here for March 31st that is all that counts!