Major League Gaming signed 5 players to 3-year $250K contracts. That averages out to near $83K per year for each player for 36 months. These players basically become salaried employees of MLG with responsibilities other than gaming, like press and media events. (source)

DirecTV will broadcast 2006 Cyberathlete Professional League events. This is major news as the leading digital television provider is showing interest in beaming these events to viewers around the world. Look for the Winter CPL event to be shown in late December 2006. (source) Console gamers are starting to use "the claw", a way of holding an XBOX controller.

The claw is a way to use 3 fingers on one hand to input commands on a controller. It appears to me that this is a sign that console gamers want more input options. I think it's a matter of time before we see console gamers using keyboards and mice as input devices. More of that later. (source)