Internet and Gaming

The last decade has seen immense growth in both the online and videogaming industries, and like almost every form of mass media, sound plays an integral role.

Music is crucial in videogames — the right track sets the mood, popular tracks generate interest in games like Guitar Hero, and featured songs get extensive play. Consider this: The least-played track on a Madden NFL 10 game will still be heard more times than the year’s biggest radio hit.

But sound in videogames goes far beyond background music. Games create entire worlds, and these worlds need sound. Every voice needs to be recorded (sometimes by well-known actors and athletes), and every breath, footstep or slapshot can be an emotionally-laden audio event.

Sometimes these are sounds that don’t exist in the real world. For example, what does it sound like when a seven-foot-tall cybernetically enhanced super-soldier drops three storeys into a pool of toxic waste while firing his gravity hammer? It’s up to someone like you to decide. Not only are sounds in a games created and recorded, they’re also built into a complex system that responds to the player’s every action. This is a new and exciting challenge for sound designers.

Already booming, over the next decade, the videogame and internet industries are expected to increase in size by another 60%, and OIART is at the forefront. OIART faculty member, Dan Brodbeck, is the only Canadian audio engineer to have been selected for training in the implementation of music into the Rock Band Network.