Elden Ring is one of 2022's most anticipated games, and with its launch nearly here, the wait for fans is almost over. Although this last stretch may be especially unbearable, fans should take heart in the fact that Elden Ring has officially gone gold, making its release feel slightly more real.
In the video game industry, there are few announcements more comforting than knowing that an expected game release has "gone gold." This phrase simply means that the title's master version has been developed, which is the state of the game that will be printed on game disc's and downloaded from internet retailers. Elden Ring was announced at E3 2019 and subsequently entered a media blackout phase, with it not being until summer of 2021 that new information finally released. It was announced in fall 2021 that Elden Ring had entered the final stages of development.
Spotted originally by Gematsu's Sal Romano, From Software has announced that Elden Ring has gone gold. The news comes from an extended interview with one of Elden Ring's producers, Yasuhiro Kitao, at the Taipei Game Show 2022, where they speak about the game in general as well as answer questions about its development. The final question for Kitao is about how development has been going, with them first speaking about Elden Ring's delay before assuring watchers that the game will be ready for release in February, stating, "The master version has already been submitted, and right now, the team is working on a day one patch." According to the video's description, this interview was recorded back in December.
Kitao answers a litany of other questions about the game throughout the video as well. When asked whether Elden Ring's dynamic weather and time-of-day systems would affect enemy spawns and placements, Kitao revealed that they have a very minimal impact.
"This was a conscious design decision, based on the fact that changing enemies for all times of day would create a kind of pressure on users to play the game at various different times. We felt this was a stress our users could do without," Kitao states. There are some enemies that do only spawn at nighttime, however.
Since this is technically an old interview, it would seem that Elden Ring went gold a while ago. This is a good sign for the game's day one patch as From Software will have had almost three months to work on getting the game ready for release after the master version had been submitted.
Considering how some games like Cyberpunk 2077 and The Division 2 had massive day one patches, it will be interesting to see where Elden Ring's update falls. History has shown that typically older hardware versions will receive larger installs, but fans will have to wait until From Software releases more information.
Elden Ring launches February 25 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Gematsu