'Bloodborne' Goes Gold, Coming To PS4 On March 24

The highly anticipated "Bloodborne" is finally done a whole year after it was first announced as a PS4 exclusive at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2014. The game has gone gold, which in layman's terms means that all development work has concluded and the game is now ready to be pressed onto physical retail discs.

Sony marked the event by throwing a party termed rather topically as "Gold Gold" event, even as the hard-as-nails action RPG nears its March 24 release date, according to Gamespot. Gamers in the Europe will have to wait another day, whereas those in Japan and UK won't get their paws on the hack-and-slash RPG until March 26 and March 27, respectively.

Unfortunately, when Sony says that the game has been completed, one can assume it does so in the loosest definition of the term. It is par for the course for almost every single major videogame release these days to ship with extant performance and optimisation issues, which are then addressed through hefty day-one patches. "Bloodborne" won't be bucking that trend either.

VG247 reports that the game will join the ranks of a growing number of AAA releases that ship with sizeable day-one patches. Even as the game goes gold, programmers at From Software are busy optimising the last few bits of the game. This includes the all-important online play component and performance optimisation, as well as "usability improvements."

The task of optimising online play is of utmost importance because, like its spiritual predecessors ("Demon's Souls" and "Dark Souls" games), "Bloodborne" too will have a persistent online component inextricably intertwined with the single player component. Gamers will be able to use in-game items to engage in "jolly co-operation" or to invade others' worlds. This interaction between "Bloodborne" players forms the backbone of the gameplay experience. Hopefully, From Software will have addressed the minor niggles by the time the game hits the store shelves.

While the average AAA game has to spend millions of dollars on marketing, From Software's legendary Souls series of games – which include "Demon's Souls," "Dark Souls" and "Dark Souls 2" – propagated almost exclusively through word-of-mouth. The series set itself apart with a rich, albeit hidden lore and a delectably old-school punishing approach to gameplay that rewarded meticulous planning and caution.

In a sea of AAA games that mollycoddle players in the name of creating an inclusive experience, the Souls series' uncompromising formula won the hearts and minds of hardcore gamers. This resulted in the series enjoying the sort of loyal fanbase that most developers would kill for. The game is being helmed by From Software Director Hidetaka Miyazaki, who was responsible for "Demon's Souls" and "Dark Souls." "Bloodborne" is therefore considered to be a spiritual successor to the Souls series of games. That explains why virtually everyone is aboard the hype train.

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The Shape of Bloodborne: What to Expect (credit: VaatiVidya YouTube channel)