Heroes VII Going Gold

[{CH}ArticleBot]

The "gold version" of a game traditionally means the version that is printed on CDs/DVDs and shipped to stores for distribution. In later years, though, especially with the breakthrough of digital distribution, the term has become somewhat ambiguous: it usually means the finished product as the players see it on day 1 of sales.

The Heroes VII developers have now announced that the game is "content & feature complete", but that bugfixing and polishing will continue for another month right up until release on Sept. 29th. With Ubisoft, that means a "day-1 patch" to accompany the physical copies if that is what you have bought.

This final development is what the second beta test is for. If you're playing that, please help the devs all you can by reporting any weaknesses you encounter, so that the final version gets as good as possible. The devs would like you to focus in particular on multiplayer bug reports and AI optimization. Go hereto read all about the second beta.
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[cjlee]

This is highly disappointing. They haven't even finished testing 4 races, let alone 6, and they have fixed a 'going gold' date.

There are many things to work out still, but I don't think AI and system requirements are going to be fixed in time. Which means we'll have to buy new computers just to play this not-very-attractive game.

Oh well, I wasn't planning on buying right away anyway. My vote in my 'The Damage Is Already Done' thread was for buying maybe a year later, once all bug fixes have been settled and game is genuinely stable and being discounted. My plan remains intact. Considering how many more bug fixes they are going to have to do in the next few months, system requirements might really be tweaked down just in time for holdouts like me!

[Pol]

Well, Gold is not gold anymore. Such self confidence is admirable. PR, first Freud, than New Age. Or a digital gold is a new term.

[mr.hackcrag]

Well said.

[jeff]

I am skeptical, but as Kalah mentioned; this is not the Gold of the old days; just all the features and content have been decided on. They are under no illusion the game is ready for production. When the actual Gold disk the production is based on is completed is unknown. However in todays age of downloads; the disk versions will be less polished than the downloaded versions, consequently the need for a day 1 patch. Day 1 patches have been here a long time. Even back when MMVI was first launched; by the time I was able to buy it a patch (maybe 2) was out. Like it or not it is what it is. By the way I voted I will wait for reviews and bug fixes before I buy.

[Kalah]

Indeed the need for a day 1 patch is evident i today's game production; the scores of players who play the game once it's out for public purchase are so much higher than the ones playing the beta, so the chances new bugs will be discovered after release are high. Also, the distribution of physical copies takes a long time, so there is time for more bug fixing even after the gold discs have been made. Why not use it ... ?

[hellegennes]

Also, games today are exponentially more complicated than what they where 15 years ago so one should treat them as works that are completed after release. And I do mean exponentially, it's not a figure of speech. They are so complex and so huge, the developers themselves can't see the whole picture by themselves. No one can really have control of all the different parts of the game that come together to create the full thing. Having day 1 patches and frequent patching is the consequence of their complexity, not a sign of things going the wrong way.