A series of innovative schools in California, Florida and Wisconsin are the first recipients of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) Foundation’s Education Challenge Grant. Centennial High School of Corona, Calif., the Diocese of Saint Petersburg of Saint Petersburg, Fla. and the Milwaukee Montessori School in Milwaukee, Wis. will receive grants to implement lesson plans that leverage video and computer games to engage students in critical subjects.

With the Stanley Cup Playoffs just around the corner, Electronic Arts is adding yet another fan voted cover athlete to its roster of games. Following in the footsteps of NCAA Football and Madden NFL, NHL 13 will feature a cover athlete voted by gamers. The EA Sports NHL Cover Vote Campaign – sponsored by BlackBerry and hosted on NHL.com, kicks off today. The voting process will consist of two preliminary rounds, followed by a 16-player bracket as a field of 60 NHL players is narrowed down to one. The winning player will be unveiled as the NHL 13 Cover Athlete at the 2012 NHL Awards on June 20 at the Wynn Las Vegas in Las Vegas. Eric Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes, who was on the cover of NHL 08, talks about gaming in this exclusive video interview below.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The franchise that laid the foundations of the city building simulation genre is back, empowering players to create the world of their imagination. Electronic Arts announced that SimCity is breaking new ground in 2013. SimCity for PC, a brand new entry in the franchise is currently in development at Maxis Emeryville, and was revealed today during Game Changers @ GDC, a symposium that featured inspirational speeches from Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, and charity: water CEO and founder Scott Harrison.

Here's a bit of a rhetorical question. What's scarier, EA's Origin service existing passed 2012 or SOPA and PIPA? Trick question, they are both pretty equally terrifying. Jokes aside, even though we're nearing the end of Internet Blackout Wednesday where sites such as Wikipedia, BoingBoing and Reddit closed up shop so to speak, more news trickled out as it relates to two of gaming's biggest juggernauts--Electronic Arts and E3 powerhouse Entertainment Software Associate both of who refuse to change their Pro-SOPA and PIPA stances despite a hefty petition on Change.org.

Lenovo is debuting its new portfolio of small to medium business laptops at CES 2012 in Las Vegas January 10-13. Loaded with serious business technology and personal lifestyle computing features, the portfolio includes the premium ThinkPad Edge S Series, the mainstream ThinkPad Edge E Series and entry-level laptops in the essential Lenovo B Series, available in select markets. The chic ThinkPad Edge S430 laptop comprises high style and genuine substance with performance technologies and innovations like the latest Intel Core processors and Thunderbolt Technology. The ThinkPad Edge 11, 13, 14 and 15-inch laptops include new useful technologies like Lenovo Solution Center to solve common IT tasks, while simultaneously addressing users’ entertainment needs with rich visual and deluxe audio features.

Zynga, fresh off its IPO, is expanding into new territory on Facebook. The casual game maker has launched Hidden Chronicles, the company’s first-ever social hidden object game. Created by some of the most talented women in casual and social game design and entertainment, Hidden Chronicles invites players to find hidden objects, solve puzzles, and unlock mysteries. Marking an entrance into an entirely new game genre for Zynga, Hidden Chronicles combines memory, skill, and social interactions, making it the most social hidden object game available.

Electronic Arts has signed the world’s top soccer player (footballer), Barcelona and Argentina superstar Lionel Messi, to a multi-year endorsement contract that will see him become the global face of the EA SPORTS FIFA franchise. The biggest transfer deal this football season sees the FIFA Ballon d’Or 2010 winner transfer to EA SPORTS and make his debut in March, 2012 on the cover of FIFA Street.

The Men In Black haven't always seen the greatest of times when it comes to movies.  The first one was excellent for sure...but the second, not so much.  But they've had even less success in video games, with the last release, Alien Escape, barely getting any attention on the GameCube and PS2.  But hopefully Activision will turn that around next year, as the company is working on a new game in the series to tie in with the upcoming Men In Black III film, which releases next summer.

Electronic Arts and Sports Illustrated have extended their marketing relationship, which debuted this year with Madden NFL 12. The game giant and sports magazine are melding  the internationally renowned Need for Speed and Swimsuit franchises bringing together the worlds of fashion, video games, cars and beauty in a first-of-its-kind partnership. The deal will see 2011 SI Swimsuit Cover model Irina Shayk and popular Swimsuit model Chrissy Teigen play guest starring roles in Need for Speed The Run. The action-packed racing game takes players on a heart-pounding cross-country race from San Francisco to New York. In addition, the partnership powers a new SI subscription bundled offer featuring Need for Speed The Run assets and both EA and SI will execute significant cross-promotion across in-game, TV and social media.

Gears of War 3 hit store shelves with more than 20,000 retailers worldwide marking the occasion with midnight madness events. At the blockbuster game’s marquee launch event in New York City at the Best Buy Theater, well over a thousand rabid fans flocked to the launch party in iconic Times Square to be among the first to experience the year’s highest-rated Xbox 360 exclusive.

Unicomm and The Bob Dowling Group have announced speakers and sessions for the second annual 3D Gaming Summit: 3D Gaming and Beyond presented in association with Variety. Scheduled for Thursday, September 22, 2011 at the Hollywood & Highland Center, Hollywood, CA, the new summit will take place the same week as the 3D Entertainment Summit and LA Mobile Entertainment Summit. The gaming summit is expanding beyond 3D this year to look at some of the hottest sectors of games, including cloud gaming, mobile game and augmented reality.  Producers have also confirmed Mick Hocking, Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, as a featured speaker. Hocking oversees all 3D game development for Sony.

At Microsoft's press conference earlier this week at E3, they announced that XBox Live will be getting an extreme makeover, so to speak. The interface will have a much simpler arrangement, making all of the content much more accessible without fumbling through too many menus. The service will also see some changes with several services such as YouTube and Bing being added to the fold. The new XBox Live will also include the ability to watch live TV for the first time on the console. With all of this and more being added to XBox Live, will there be a price increase to the subscription?