Marathon Gamers, a group of friends who started a modest organization to play games for charity, will be launching its Summer Marathon of Friendship to raise money for the group's local St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The group, who resides in Huntsville, Alabama, will kick off a 48-hour marathon gaming session on June 20th on Twitch.

The tentative plan is to play everything from Left 4 Dead to Mario Party and to raise lots of money for St. Jude's. The event will start on June 20th at 2:00PM CDT.

Military-themed video game charity Operation Supply Drop announced several new initiatives for 2014 that are possible because of the strong support it received during its recent 8-Bit Salute fundraiser. The new "Thank You Deployment" initiative was announced, and the goal of it is to send select members of the armed forces on an all-expenses-paid VIP trip to gaming events or tours of game development studios for a rare insider's look at the video game industry.

In addition to announcing the launch of the 1.19 update for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, developer Naughty Dog announced that it has rescheduled its gaming marathon session to benefit Operation Supply Drop’s 8-Bit Salute event. Over the weekend the organizers annual charity drive and gaming marathon was the target of a DDoS attack. This messed up much of the group's fund-raising efforts because its main web site was taken offline several times.

Game-related charity AbleGamers foundation has launched a new initiative that will help bring gamers with disabilities to gaming conferences and other events.

The charity dedicated to advocating for and helping gamers with disabilities, is seeking $200,000 in donations for a new initiative called "Driving Home Accessibility." The goal of the program is to bring equipment and assistive technology experts to gamers in long-term living facilities, VA centers, children's hospitals and other areas that make it difficult to attend events.

Over the weekend military related charity Operation Supply Drop held its gaming marathon '8-Bit Salute' to raise money for sending care packages to military personal deployed in combat zones and recovering in military hospitals. But during this weekend's event hackers decided to ruin everything by taking down the charity's main web site where those who wanted to contribute would have made their donations.

Grinding Gear Games said that its first charity race event related to Path of Exile has already raised almost $20,000 to benefit the Child's Play charity. The event, which started on Saturday, May 10, 2014 in its game, will continue to run till Saturday, May 24, at 1:00 PM PST. The in-game item on sale for this charity event, an Angelic Mask, has sold over 3,600 units at a cost of $5.00 a piece, and is only available during the two week event. One-hundred percent of the proceeds are being donated to the Child's Play charity.

Military-focused video game charity Operation Supply Drop will host its annual "8-Bit Salute" charity gaming marathon event this weekend (May 17-18). Donations raised during this year's charity event will fund video game care packages to U.S. military personal deployed in combat zones such as Afghanistan and those recovering in military hospitals.

For the next 13 days Humble Bundle is hosting a daily bundle sale where a new bundle is offered for whatever you're willing to pay. Today's bundle is the Deep Silver ReBundle, which offers a previous bundle containing a bunch of Deep Silver's top games.

UK charity Special Effect has put up a very interesting video of a man with spinal muscular atrophy playing Minecraft with his eyebrows. You've read that right; he's playing Mojang's popular world-building sandbox game using the power of moving his eyebrows up and down, and it's pretty amazing to watch.

Actress Bailee Madison and Starlight Children's Foundation will launch the first inaugural Play in May campaign next month. The charity event highlights the healing power of play for hospitalized kids while raising funds to support Starlight programs. Starting May 1, individuals and teams can pledge to play games for 15 minutes a day for 15 days and get friends, neighbors, coworkers and family members to sponsor the activity by making a donation.

During PAX East 2014, Carbine Studios donated $10,000 to the Child's Play charity, to benefit the Boston Children's Hospital and the University of Massachusetts Children's Medical Center.

British gaming charity Get-Well Gamers UK announced that it has received a large donation (pictured) of video games and video game consoles from UK games developer Mediatonic. The charity said that it was surprised and stunned (in a good way) by the generosity of Mediatonic - and obviously they were grateful for it.

The AbleGamers Charity announced that it raised $33,635.07 for Gamers with Disabilities at PAX East 2014 - the largest fundraising total to date, according to the charity. Pachinko for charity players, donors and corporate matching funds helped the charity hit that number during PAX East in Boston.

Sony PlayStation and Bossa Studios have announced their support for the Stand Up for GamesAid comedy event on April 14. The proceeds of the comedy event will go directly to UK-based gaming charity, GamesAid. PlayStation has signed up to the role of Premium Event and Exclusive Bar Partner while Bossa Studios is an Event Partner.

Military-focused video game charity Operation Supply Drop will be at PAX East in Boston April 11 - 13 for a variety of activities in support of its ongoing charitable efforts. First and foremost, the group will be signing up teams for its charity gaming marathon, 8-Bit Salute.

Military-focused video game charity Operation Supply Drop today announced the creation of a board of advisors made up of video games industry veterans and former military personnel to support its "rapid expansion and increase the total number of charitable activities it pursues."

The group has also named Glenn “Commander” Banton, Sr. as the Chairman of the Board. He will continue to serve as the group's Chief Marketing Officer.

UK indie developer NotGames has launched a new game called NotGTAV, an extremely low-budget PC parody of Rockstar's popular open-world action adventure, set in the UK. The game lets you: harass sheep in rural Wales, raid a LIDL in Swindon and play as David Cameron in London running over liberals and public sector workers," according to Eurogamer.

Military-focused video game charity Operation Supply Drop announced that it will partner with game-focused video streaming service Twitch to raise funds for the third-annual 8-Bit Salute. The 8-Bit Salute event is an annual 24-hour gaming marathon taking place this year from May 17-18. Donations raised during this year's charity event will fund video game care packages to U.S. military personal deployed in combat zones such as Afghanistan and those recovering in military hospitals.

AbleGamers will return to Boston, Massachusetts for the PAX East gaming conference, April 11-13, 2014. The group's annual Pachinko-themed fundraising event gathers support from video game publishers and developers, including EA, Blizzard, Square Enix, PlayStation, and many more, to offer prizes to those who donate to the AbleGamers Charity.

UK-based games charity GamesAid has announced the line-up of comedians that will be taking part in its annual comedy-charity event Stand Up for GamesAid. The annual comedy show takes place this year on April 14 at the Comedy Store in London and will be hosted by Imran Yusuf, and Eurogamer's Ellie Gibson.

They will be joined by comedians Paul Tonkinson, Ola, Holly Walsh, Paul Thorne, Jarred Christmas, Susan Calman, and Kev Orkian.

Money raised from the event through ticket sales will go directly into the coffers of GamesAid.

Military-focused gaming charity Operation Supply Drop has announced that its third annual fundraising event, the 8-Bit Salute, will take place May 17 - 18, 2014. Funds and donations raised by Operation Supply Drop during the 24-hour gaming marathon will be used to deliver video game to troops in Afghanistan as well as various recovery centers across the country.

AbleGamers Founder Mark Barlet announced during his SXSW speech this weekend that the first Canadian Game Accessibility Lab (or AbleGamers Accessibility Arcade) will be hosted by the University of Toronto. The arcade will include the "most up-to-date technology and controllers designed to enable gamers with disabilities access to today’s most popular video games," according to AbleGamers. It will be hosted by the Semaphore Research Cluster, which is part of the iSchool (Faculty of Information), on a permanent basis.

We are happy to report that - as of this writing - Brandon Boyer's Cancer Treatment Relief Fund on GoFundMe has passed the $100,000 mark. Boyer is the Chair of the Independent Games Festival, a former news editor at Gamasutra, an accomplished musician, and a co-founder of the Boing Boing video game blog Offworld, and its spiritual successor called Venus Patrol.

A GoFundMe crowd-funding campaign has launched to raise money for games journalist Brandon Boyer, who was left with over $100,000 in medical bills after his insurance company Humana refused to pay them, using a "pre-existing condition" clause in his insurance policy. Keep in mind that Boyer's surgery, which saw part of his small intestine and liver removed, happened before the Affordable Care Act went into effect.

AbleGamers Charity Founder and Executive Director, Mark Barlet, will deliver a keynote at SXSW this month. Bartlet's speech will be delivered at the SXSW Long Center March 8, 2014 from 12:30 – 1:30. All SXSW participants are welcome and the talk itself is open to the public. AbleGamers encourages all developers and gamers to attend. A brief Q & A will be held after the event.

Jennifer Ann's Group announced the start of its 2014 video game competition to raise awareness about and (hopefully) prevent teen dating violence. The seventh annual Life.Love. Game Design Challenge urges game developers and individuals to design a game that raises awareness on the very real issue of teen dating violence. The group was founded in 2008 by Drew Crecente, who lost his daughter Jennifer Anne in 2006. Jennifer Ann Crecente was a high school honors student that was murdered by an ex-boyfriend on February 15, 2006.

Get-Well Gamers Foundation, a charity dedicated to providing games to children in health care facilities, today announced that it has expanded to the United Kingdom with the addition of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London, as its 200th member facility.

RuneScape makers Jagex Games today revealed the results of their 24-hour long gaming marathon in support of UK-based charity SpecialEffect’s inaugural GameBlast weekend. The marathon, which saw 90,000 unique viewers over the course of the stream, featured staff and selected members of the RuneScape community play RuneScape and Ace of Spades throughout the 24 hour period, raising over £48,000 as a result.

Jagex raised £9,380.80 from its JustGiving page, £25,412.50 from RuneScape related activity and £13,759 from Ace of Spades-related activity.

RuneScape maker Jagex Games Studio passed along word this morning that it plans to host a 24-hour marathon in support of the games charity SpecialEffect’s inaugural GameBlast weekend. The challenge will be held at Jagex’s Cambridge, England headquarters, and will take place from 1pm GMT on Friday, February 21.

Through a combination of attendee entry fees, donations it received on-site, Peggle 2 entries, PayPal donations and excess sponsorship, Gamers Outreach announced that it managed to raise a total of $20,682.37 for game-related charities at its annual event - Gamers for Giving 2014 - that took place this weekend. According to statistics the group shared, it raised $12,970.00 from online registration and donations; $5,510.00 from raffle ticket sales, Peggle, door sales, and on-site donations; and $2,202.37 from stream donations, mail-in donations, and excess sponsorships.