Kyrie Irving is the recipient of the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy as the 2011-12 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year. Irving totaled 592 points and received 117 first-place votes from a panel of 120 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. The Cleveland Cavalier talks NBA 2K12 in this exclusive video interview below.

The Avengers could break all box office records this weekend in the U.S., thanks to Chris Evans and an all-star team of super heroes. The man behind Captain America had a blockbuster summer last year, which marked his third super hero success as he played The Human Torch in The Fantastic Four films. Evans talks about his two super hero roles and what it was like to work on The Avengers in this exclusive video interview below.

Nissan North America is partnering once again with Sony Computer Entertainment America and Polyphony Digital for a second season of the popular non-scripted TV series GT Academy in the U.S. The series will highlight the latest blending of virtual racing and reality. GT Academy challenges gamers and racing fans to compete in a series of online time trials in pre-selected Nissan vehicles for a shot at becoming a real racing driver. Last year’s competition drew over 53,000 competitors nationwide, with 30-year old Californian Bryan Heitkotter emerging as the winner. Heitkotter has gone on to compete in races for Nissan in the United States, Middle East and Europe. Heikotter talks about the experience in the exclusive video interview below.

It looks like the $18 million James Cameron invested into the 3D conversion of his Oscar-winning Titanic was money well spent. The director spent time meticulously going over every frame of the film to convert it to 3D. And the movie opened with $25.7 million in the U.S. and an additional $35.5 million in 84 foreign territories. Cameron talks about Titanic and 3D in the video below.

In what appears to be a decisive turning point, U.S. flat-panel TV shipments are projected to dip for the first time on an annual basis this year, ending an unbroken string of growth since the market began. Shipments in 2012 of flat-panel TVs into the American market are forecast to decline to 37.1 million units, down 5 percent from 39.1 million units in 2011, according to an IHS iSuppli U.S. TV Market Tracker report from information and analytics provider IHS. Only last year, shipments had inched up 1 percent from 38.6 million units in 2010. Some consumer electronics companies continue to do well, like Vizio, which can be seen in the video below showcasing new big screen TVs.

Thanks in part to the sales surge of Sony’s PlayStation 3, there are now Blu-ray Disc players in one quarter of U.S. households. Lower hardware prices for stand-alone BD players have also contributed to this growth. According to Centris Research, the installed base of Blu-ray players in U.S. homes was up 47% in Q4 2011 over the same quarter of 2010.

Although Formula One Racing isn’t huge in the U.S., where NASCAR reigns, Codemasters continues to find global success with the sport selling millions of copies of the F1 game franchise. With the new season of F1 racing underway, the game publisher and developer is bringing a new game to PC and consoles this September. Codemasters just released F1 2011 for Sony’s PlayStation Vita at launch, but F1 2012 will be driving across PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 later this year.

TRANSFORMERS fans won’t have to wait for a fourth film from Michael Bay to get in on the action. In fact, they won’t even have to wait until the new TRANSFORMERS: Fall of Cybertron game from High Moon Studios. Activision is bringing the ultimate TRANSFORMERS video game experience to kids of all ages with the TRANSFORMERS PRIME video game.  Based on the hit animated television show produced by Hasbro Studios and currently airing on The Hub television network in the U.S., the game lets fans play as their favorite AUTOBOT characters and embark on an action-packed adventure to save the earth from the evil MEGATRON and his new secret weapon. 

SAN FRANCISCO -- With mobile gaming a major theme at this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC 2012), Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced that it will release the open beta version of PlayStation Suite SDK to content developers in April 2012 and the official version later this year.  Through the introduction of these SDKs, SCE will offer a more streamlined content development environment for content developers — from large game development companies to small, independent shops — and further expand the world of PlayStation® to open operating system based portable devices.

PlaySpan, a Visa company, has explored the online purchasing decisions of gamers in a new study on virtual goods.  Overall, the study showed more than $2.3 billion of virtual goods were purchased in 2011 in the U.S., with gamers spending an average of $64 each over the course of the year. The dollar amount per individual was up 28 percent over 2009, thanks in part to the influx of new social games from companies like Zynga, Electronic Arts and Rovio Entertainment.

OTTAWA -- The National Hockey League announced All-Star and rookie assignments for the 2012 Molson Canadian NHL All-Star Skills Competition, Saturday, Jan. 28 at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa. A fan favorite that has showcased hockey’s top talent at NHL All-Star Weekend since 1990, the event will be broadcast live on CBC and RDS in Canada and the NBC Sports Network in the United States at 7 p.m.,ET.

The first chapter of the Star Wars Saga arrives in theatres for the first time ever in 3D starting February 10, and AMC theatres across the country are celebrating the occasion with plans to make opening weekend one for fans and families to remember. As part of the festivities, the new LucasArts and Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360 3D Star Wars game will be playable.