This morning’s Gamasutra Newsletter had a couple interesting tidbits:

The Game Audio Network Guild is a non-profit organization that was “established to educate the masses in regards to interactive audio”. They announced their 3rd annual award winners for 2005 at this year’s Game Developer Conference, which wrapped a couple weeks ago. What’s interesting about the list is the number of high quality entrants there were. Game audio is phenomenal these days, if you haven’t been paying attention. 5.1 channel surround sound, baby…no boops and beeps here. Witness instead the terror of WW II soundscapes! Bop to original pop songs and live musical performance! The biz has come a long way since the SID chip and FM synthesis.

This year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (or E3, as we like to say) has apparently sold out its exhibit space in a 5-year record time. So this promises to be a huge show:

540,000 net square feet of exhibit space has been sold, covering five exhibit halls, making it the largest expo since 2000 – at the outset of this current generation of consoles. Further details of the next generation of consoles are likely set to be debuted at this year’s expo, with new information from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo all promised in some form, with the next-generation Xbox extremely likely to get a full unveiling.

Ooooo.