[havlowjumper]

Hi All,

I know that there was one fairly robust thread earlier about Game Audio, but I was hoping to introduce a new thread that addresses what we might consider a crossover topic:

I know it has been beaten to death, and we are all tired to a degree of talking and writing about it, but loudness, and the "loudness war" has been infiltrating gaming. As the game technology catches up to film and TV (games in surround, Dolby encoded) many of the same issues that Film and TV mixers face in terms of loudness and mixing are now being faced in the world of gaming.

One major issue it seems to me is that there is no one group that can effectively regulate or even suggest any standards for the game industry audio professionals to follow. Networks have QC and delivery specs, Films have delivery requirements, but for gaming there seems to be no real control.

I work for a game company, and I have been asking colleagues this question, and often times the answer comes back to "what does the publisher want?"

That is fair, but I also don't want to blow up my audience's home speakers when they switch from TV or a Movie to gaming... not to mention the use of dynamics for effect (god forbid there is any art involved in mixing a game)

Any game audio folks (or anyone) out there with some thoughts or sources?

thanks for reading,
-abe