LittleBigPlanet leads GANG award nominations

The Game Audio Network Guild has announced the nominations for its annual awards – and Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet is leading the pack by a significant margin.

The PS3 killer app is nominated for an astonishing eight awards – including Music of the Year, Sound Design of the Year, Best Interactive Score, Best Dialogue, Best Original Instrumental, Best Original Vocal – Choral, Best Use of Licensed Music and overall Audio of the Year.

Other UK and European studios featured include Lionhead, whose recent RPG epic Fable II received four nominations; Crytek’s Crysis Warhead and Rockstar North’s GTA IV both get two; while Zoe Mode receives a nod for You’re In The Movies and SCEE Studio Liverpool’s WipEout Pulse also gets one nomination.

Looking globally, World of Warcraft gets five nominations; Gears of War 2, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Dead Space trail with four apiece and Need for Speed, Left 4 Dead and Afrika all receive three.

"What an amazing time for game audio,” said Tommy Tallarico, GANG founder, CEO and Chairman.

“Each year it gets more difficult for the 50-person GANG advisory board to chose the final nominees from the hundreds of amazing entries.”

GANG president Paul Lipson added: "By gathering input from our North American, European Union, and Asian advisory board members, this was truly an international process from the start. The level of talent around the world is extremely high, and being voted as a final nominee is a remarkable accomplishment."

The GANG audio awards take place alongside GDC on Thursday 26th March in the North hall of the Moscone Centre.