Champions Online goes gold before open beta starts

Atari and Cryptic studios announced today that Champions Online has gone gold. This is particularly interesting since the open beta for the very same game begins today as well. While I don't think that anyone was really under the impression that open beta tests right before release were really for anything other than promoting the products, it seems like a very "interesting" time to announce it's gold status.

Of course it's always possible to have big patches on the first day it's open for the retail release, which is currently slated for September 1st.