Doom 3 goes gold

Confirming last week's rumors, id CEO Todd Hollenshead sent out an e-mail today revealing that Doom 3 has gone gold. "IT'S DONE!!!!!!!," he calmly announced. "Yes, this is the official word that DOOM 3 has been code released and has been approved for manufacturing!"

Earlier this morning, Hollenshead personally confirmed the e-mail's legitimacy to GameSpot. "It's authentic," he said. Shortly after 11:00am PDT, the news was officially confirmed by a press release from Activision's external PR agency, which aptly cried, "See you in Hell!"

The rest of Hollenshead's message--viewable via his .plan file--was equally ebullient, and gave details of the game's final hours in development. "We literally just hung up with Activision and have confirmed that our latest release candidate has been mutually approved and is finally GOLD. Thanks to everyone for their patience (yeah right! =) and for everyone at id, Activision and our numerous partners for helping us create what I believe is absolutely the best game we have ever made."

Hollenshead also broke down the game's exact US release schedule. "Retailers in the States will be allowed to pick up games starting at 12:01 AM on August 3rd," he announced. "The official street date is actually August 5th in the USA, but some of your favorite stores will probably have it early for those of you who have to have it first."

The id CEO also divulged the game's international plans. "Internationally, the game will take a few more days to make it to the store shelves," he said. "The UK will probably get it first, on or about August 6th. Everywhere else will probably be Friday, August 13th (cue Twilight Zone Theme) or close to that date, with just a few exceptions (e.g. Russia and Poland). This isn't because we don't have love for you folks outside the U.S., but the localization and manufacturing process takes a bit longer outside the U.S. where we will have JVC run 24/7 to get the units built."

Given Doom 3's nearly half-decade in development, Hollenshead was understandably enthusiastic. "The champagne is flowing here at id and smiles abound!" To learn more about the game's long and winding road to release, check out GameSpot's extensive previous coverage.

There were no announcements regarding the Xbox version of Doom 3, which is being developed by Vicarious Visions and is scheduled to ship this fall.