Electronic Arts is being rewarded for sticking with Tiger Woods through thick and thin. In a perfect stroke of marketing, Woods won his first PGA TOUR event since his public divorce just before EA Sports was shipping Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 13 and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 13:The Masters Collector’s Edition to retailers around the world. His victory at Bay Hill has made Tiger relevant once again in the golf world and helped ratings surge for broadcasters. Woods also recently showed his sense of humor in the “Duel of the Masters” viral video with Shaquille O’Neal. Check out the making of that video below.

REYKJAVIK -- Thousands of EVE Online fans have converged on the island nation of Iceland located 65 degrees North of the equator and they were in for a treat as CCP Games revealed a lot more about their upcoming console MMOFPS DUST 514. During the DUST 514 keynote speech, CCP developers showed off a "Shock and Awe" style coordinated orbital bombardment of a DUST battlefield by an EVE player in realtime. CCP also showed off the orbital command center and surface command centers which enable communication between the two games as well as the orbital artillery that lets DUST players retaliate against EVE players in orbit. It was an amazing first look at what CCP is envisioning in its innovative EVE and DUST 514 hybrid gameplay. We talked to DUST 514 Executive Producer Brandon Laurino to get more insight and details about DUST 514 in this exclusive video interview.

According to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)’s Theatrical Market Statistics Report for 2011, global box office receipts for all films released around the world reached $32.6 billion, an increase of 3% over 2010, due to ongoing growth of box office in international markets. Each international region experienced box office growth in 2011.  Chinese box office grew by 35% in 2011 alone, by far the largest growth in major markets. This report does not factor in the rising cost of tickets, especially with 3D movies like the hit Relativity film Immortals.

LOS ANGELES -- Two of the NFL’s best reconvened in Los Angeles for a Super Bowl rematch playing Call of Duty in an Epic Grudge Match. Super Bowl Champ Ahmad Bradshaw of the New York Giants took on Pro Bowler Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots in Los Angeles. The two played new Collection 1 DLC for Modern Warfare 3. The new DLC is stockpiled with not only four Multiplayer/Survival Mode Maps, but two Special Ops Missions, giving players six pieces of content, a first for the franchise. Michael Condrey, COO and co-founder of Sledgehammer Games, talks about the Grudge Match and DLC in this exclusive video interview.

One of the most talked-about presentations at the Game Developers Conference (GDC 2012) in San Francisco was David Cage’s KARA. The video, which can be seen below, employs new performance capture technology that Quantic Dream is using for its next game.

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.

Zynga has acquired New York-based social game developer OMGPOP, makers of the popular cultural hit mobile game, Draw Something, and over 35 additional social games. As a part of the Zynga family, OMGPOP will focus on building new mobile IP and strengthening its existing portfolio of fun and creative social games.

Mark Meer is a Canadian-based actor, writer and improviser. He is a proud member of the Rapid Fire Theatre group and founded the sketch comedy/improv group, Gordon's Big Bald Head. Mark is most known for voicing Commander Shepard in Bioware's "Mass Effect" series. With the franchise wrapping up, I got a chance to ask Mark a few questions and had him reflect on the series, including what the future holds for Commander Shepard.

In news that could shift how game developers and healthcare professionals harness the power of videogames to do good, HopeLab and Stanford University researchers today announced new data showing that Re-Mission, a video game about killing cancer in the body, strongly activates brain circuits involved in positive motivation. This reward-related activation is associated with a shift in attitudes and emotions that has helped boost players’ adherence to prescribed chemotherapy and antibiotic treatments in a previous study. The study published today provides new insights into how these effects might have occurred, revealing that active participation in gameplay events is key to activating the brain’s positive motivation circuits. Seeing and hearing the same information without active participation in gameplay had no impact on activity in positive motivation circuits.

Since its first performance to over 11,000 people at the Hollywood Bowl, Video Games Live has been breaking attendance records and selling out shows in major metropolitan cities around the world for over seven years.  And to help celebrate 2012 as being its 10th year in business, Video Games Live wants to travel “off the grid” and will be performing shows not only in the big city arenas, theatres and stadiums throughout the world… but to other smaller venues and towns as well.

Blizzard Entertainment will unleash one of the big games of 2012, Diablo III, the next chapter in its critically acclaimed action role-playing game series, on May 15. Starting that day, gamers with a thirst for fast-paced action and adventure will be able to purchase Diablo III at retailers throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. In addition, gamers in the regions above as well as in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil will be able to buy Diablo III digitally via Blizzard’s Battle.net website.

The Battlefield army is over 12 million strong and growing every day as Battlefield 3 and its first expansion, Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand, continue to recruit gamers around the world with its sandbox gameplay and state-of-the-art technology. DICE, an Electronic Arts studio, will keep the action coming throughout the year with three new themed digital expansion packs that will introduce new modes, unique environments and more ways to wage all-out-war. Powered by the Frostbite 2 engine, the next expansion packs are: Battlefield 3: Close Quarters in June, Battlefield 3: Armored Kill in the fall, and Battlefield 3: End Game in the winter.