CES 2006 Innovations Awards Announced

The winners of the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show Innovations Awards have been posted to the official CES site, which includes the honorees in the Electronic Gaming category. Since the split away of gaming software companies to form the Electronics Entertainment Expo in 1995, electronic gaming at CES has been mostly represented by game hardware and peripheral companies, which is reflected in the awards. The 2006 CES will be held from January 5-8, 2006, in Las Vegas. The awards are not broken down into specific categories but instead given to the most innovative and best designed products in the previous year. Not all honorees are necessarily displayed at CES; three of the 2006 winners will have no presence at the show. Those three are Adaptec, who won with the GameBridge TV; Lightglove, who win with the eponymous control mechanism; and XFX Creation with the XGear Dual Reflex Wireless PC Controller. Honorees who will be displaying the award-winning products at CES 2006 are Electric-Spin Inc., with the Golf Launchpad for PS2; eMagin Corp., with the Z800 3DVisor; GameRunner Inc., with the GameRunner controller; InFocus Corp., with the Play Big IN72 gaming television; Logitech, with the programmable G15 Keyboard; Monster Cable, with the Gamelink Component Video and Fiber Optic Audio cable for Xbox 360; Nyko, with the Theater Experience peripheral for PSP; and Powergrid Fitness, with the Exer-station fitness device for home consoles. Gamasutra will have further coverage from CES next week, including in-person coverage of the keynotes from Microsoft's Bill Gates and Sony's Howard Stringer, as well as show and associated conference reports.