NEW YORK CITY – EA Sports attracted the top NFL rookies to its NCAA Football Draft Night Premiere event. One of the more avid gamers in attendance was Cleveland Browns first round draft pick Trent Richardson. Fresh of a national championship with Alabama, Richardson talks about his love and devotion to video games in this exclusive video interview below.

Want to know more about Diablo III’s new auction house feature? Blizzard Entertainment has just updated the Diablo III Web site with a comprehensive Auction House guide that walks you through the ins and outs of Diablo III’s in-game item marketplace, including details on buying and selling, a breakdown of how the real-money auction house works (in regions where available), and more. You’ll also find some important information on Battle.net account-security requirements that players interested in using the real-money auction house will need to know about. The developer breaks down that and other new features of the new RPG in the exclusive video interview below.

Disney Cruise Line is pushing interactive entertainment even further with its latest game experience for the Midship Detective Agency. The new Disney Fantasy cruise ship, which offers seven-day cruises throughout the Caribbean, has an exclusive Muppet adventure game called The Case of the Stolen Show. During the cruise, guests can take an interactive adventure quest around the ship, uncovering clues through two dozen Enchanted Art pieces as well as physical evidence. Walt Disney Imagineer Karen Leung discusses the brand new game experience in the exclusive video interviews below and on the next page.

NEW YORK CITY – EA Sports kicked off the countdown to the latest installment of Madden live in Times Square before the 2012 NFL Draft by allowing fans to choose the cover athlete of the game on ESPN’s “Sports Nation.” Calvin Johnson edged Cam Newton in the battle, but gamers will be glad to see EA is expanding its Madden franchise to new systems. Madden NFL 13 will debut on Sony’s PlayStation Vita come August 28th. And the game will implement Kinect technology for the first time.

Over the past few years, Konami Digital Entertainment has worked closely with school districts in Hawaii and West Virginia to integrate its bestselling DanceDanceRevolution (DDR) game into their physical education programs. Now the game publisher is taking things a step further. This fall, schools around the nation will be able to use DanceDanceRevolution Classroom Edition, a PC-based game crafted specially for schools and fitness classes. Sweeping the nation one classroom at a time, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. has collaborated with  the nation’s leading health and fitness organizations including the American Diabetes Association, The National Foundation on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition and Let’s Move in Schools to promote fitness in schools through the new DanceDanceRevolution Classroom Edition.

To celebrate the James Bond franchise’s 50th anniversary and the release of the 23rd film, SKYFALL, Activision Publishing has a brand new game experience featuring the iconic British spy. Gamers will travel through time to relive a selection of Bond’s most iconic and intense undercover missions from six popular Bond film franchise with 007 Legends. In tandem with this video game release, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will unleash the James Bond Collection on Blu-ray for the first time, which will allow gamers to watch, and then play, the entire James Bond collection.

The countdown has begun for one of the big games of 2012. Microsoft and 343 Industries are developing Halo 4, the hotly anticipated sequel that will ship on November 6, 2012. Taking control of the franchise with Bungie developing an original franchise for Activision, 343 Industries shows what’s in store with the start of a new trilogy in the video below.

LAS VEGAS – Namco Bandai and Paramount Pictures have released a new trailer and concept art from Digital Extremes’ Star Trek game. The award-winning game casts players for the first time ever as Kirk and Spock in an original co-op experience. Set in the new canon of director and producer J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (2009) reboot, players will be immersed in the game’s rich story and action-packed combat. Check out the trailer and concept art below.

CARY, North Carolina – Red Storm Entertainment is doing more than develop the 12-player multiplayer experience for Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. The studio is also heavily involved in the new Ghost Recon Network, which will serve as a virtual hub for gamers to connect to the game world while away from their console. The service including support for tablets and smartphones, as well as laptops and PCs. Rob Newn, head of the free online service, talks about what’s in store for gamers in this exclusive video interview below.

Electronic Arts-owned BioWare and LucasArts have updated Star Wars:The Old Republic with new high level gameplay content for players and also includes the evolution of the Legacy System, a feature that ties all of your characters together into one family, regardless of class or faction, and allows them to unlock custom new abilities. Game Update 1.2 will also include some of the communities’ most sought-after game enhancements including user interface customization and guild banks along with gameplay and balancing fixes.

In the face of right-wing attacks by the Family Research Council, consumers and citizens around the world are strongly backing one of the largest video game makers, Electronic Arts, for their inclusion of lesbian, gay, bi and transgender (LGBT) characters in the new video games Star Wars: The Old Republic and Mass Effect 3.  Both games from BioWare have allowed gamers to create unique characters and decide what types of sexual relationships to pursue within these complex virtual worlds.