Members of the video game industry in the United Kingdom are teaming up with UK charity GamesAid to put together a Christmas concert that will raise money for charity. A choir comprised of 24 men and women from across the industry including OBEs, CEOs, Managing Directors, PR, sales people and marketers has been formed and is practicing for its very first event on December 19 at St. Stephen's, Rosslyn Hill in London. Tickets cost £20 for adults and £10 for children under the age of 16.

Brenda Romero of Loot Drop confirmed that Ubisoft has cancelled her strategy-based Facebook game Ghost Recon Commander. The social game spin-off launched on Facebook in May, but didn't quite get the kind of response Ubisoft wanted. Along with the cancelation of the game, Brenda Romero also revealed that the development team working on the game had been laid off.

"Sad news. Today, Ghost Recon Commander was cancelled. As a result, we laid off a team of kick-ass developers. If you have openings, ping me," she tweeted.

The 15th annual Nite to Unite - For Kids gala raised $822,000 for the ESA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Entertainment Software Association, the event's organizers announced today. The black-tie event took place last week in San Francisco, where various game industry luminaries and the media got together for a good cause. Valve co-founder and managing director Gabe Newell was also honored at Nite to Unite as the 2012 ESA Champion Honoree. Previous honorees include Blizzard president and CEO Mike Morhaime and Star Wars franchise creator George Lucas.

While we occasionally give Electronic Arts a hard time, we also like to point out when they do good things. Last weekend "Team EA" took part in the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk in San Francisco to raise funds for the fight against breast cancer.

Jonatan Soderstrom, one of the co-creators of the popular indie PC game Hotline Miami, apparently noticed a thread over on The Pirate Bay complaining about bugs in his game. So what does he do? He joins in and promises a patch!. Yes, Soderstrom offers support even to people who pirated his game. From the thread (uncovered by PC Gamer):

The The Entertainment Consumers Association announced that its local chapters are working together to collect and share food in their local communities in the United States and Canada.

The ECA is also asking the gaming community to pitch in in whatever way they can by volunteering or by giving food to your local ECA chapter. You can find an ECA chapter near you by checking out this list.

Speaking at the Broadband World Forum in Amsterdam on Wednesday, Eidos Life President Ian Livingstone said that broadband bottlenecks around the world are slowing down the game industry's transition from the physical to the digital world, and urged telecommunications companies to build more broadband infrastructure.

"What we need is super-speed broadband,″ said Livingstone. "You're kind of holding us back in many respects."

Last month pioneer video game artist Paul H. Steed passed away. Steed's credits included the Quake and Wing Commander series. He also served as an Advisory Board member for the Game Developers Conference for a number of years. Out of respect for Steed, the Game Developers Conference Advisory Board announced the launch of a memorial fund for Paul Steed's family.

2012 Election - Rise of the President is an iOS game that stands out because it was created by Stiven Deleur, a talented 14-year-old who started coding only a few months ago. But the inspiration for the game actually came from his father, who came up with the idea one afternoon.

"I wanted a fun way for people who are interested in politics, to participate in the election process and show support for their candidate," said Alex Deleur. "Plus, by collecting data per team, the goal was to create a game that could predict [the] result of the upcoming election."

We have not done the best job of promoting Extra Life this month even though it's biggest gaming event of 2012 is going to kick off on Saturday, October 20. We apologize profusely for that because they rally gamers like you and me to raise funds for sick and injured kids in children's hospitals across North America.

Polygon offers a mildly interesting and inspirational story about how some favorite pastimes - soccer and video games - are being used to teach kids in the African nation of Rwanda about the importance of financial literacy. The game, Financial Football, is now in schools across the country and is being sponsored by the generosity of credit card giant Visa.

The man that many consider the face, heart and soul of Epic Games, has decided that it is time to take a breather and leave the company. Epic Games made the announcement last night via its official blog. The split seems amicable enough for the creative force behind the Gears of War series.

UK-based game-related charity GamesAid announced the organizations it will support for the remainder of 2012. Voting for which charities to support ended on September 23 with such UK-based organizations as Accuro, Action for Kids, CHIVA (Children’s HIV Association), Dreamflight, Family Holiday Association, Friends of Chelsea Children’s Hospital School, Jigsaw4u, Julia’s House, Lifelites, MAPS - Sutton Borough Volunteer Bureau, Scottish Huntington’s Association (Youth Service), Small Steps, SpecialEffect, and The Willow Foundation vying for some much needed cash.

The IndieGameStand is offering MagicalTimeBean's puzzle-platformer Escape Goat in its latest pay-what-you-want DRM-free game promotion. Unlike other Indie game offerings that provide a bundle of games, IndieGameStand offers one indie game for three days. If you pay more than $1 you can unlock a code for the game via Desura.

Ten percent of all proceeds go to a charity of the developer's choosing: this time it's the American Red Cross.

An 11-year-old girl named Victoria Walker has won a $20,000 award from AT&T for creating an app that discourages users from texting while driving. The contest was part of a promotion to generate awareness for the "It Can Wait" campaign, which reminds mobile phone users that texting while driving (distracted driving) can have deadly consequences.

This Techland report details how a New York City school teacher named Joel Levin has created a version of Minecraft for schools called MinecraftEdu. Levin teaches second-grade computer classes at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School in New York City. He also runs a Minecraft club for high school students and has been incorporating Minecraft into his classes for the past two years.

Indie Game Developers have teamed up for the Rising Star Indie Bundle, which offers five indie games for whatever you are willing to pay for them. More importantly, half the sales from this bundle will go to the Get-Well Gamers Foundation.

In an opinion piece on Politico, Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA.) and Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA.) make the case for open internet policies. They open the opinion piece by noting that both political parties have some language paying homage to the concept of a "free and open Internet" and explain what it all means in terms of what is going on in Washington. You may remember that Congressman Issa was at the forefront of fighting against SOPA when it was in committee.

EVE Online's player-run government has honored US embassy official Sean "Vile Rat" Smith, who was killed during an attack on the US Embassy in Libya earlier this week (thanks to Eurogamer). Eve Online's Council of Stellar Management formally responded to Smith's untimely death at the hands of protestors angry about a film clip that depicted the Islamic prophet Mohammad as a child molester and cruel oppressor, among other things.

Threadless has launched the Threadless Loves Minecraft Challenge, which challenges both the artists of the Threadless and Minecraft communities to design a t-shirt using characters, tools, blocks and other inspirations from the popular game.

The top designers will each receive $3,000 cash, a $500 Threadless Gift Certificate and an all-expenses paid trip to attend the annual MineCon convention at Disneyland Resort Paris November 24-25, 2012.

Raspberry Pi is now being manufactured in the United Kingdom, though in a limited run. Before today most of the tiny computers were made in Chinese factories. The UK-made Raspberry Pi will be assembled at Sony UK Technology's factory in Pencoed, South Wales, according to the BBC. Another silver lining to making them in the UK is that it will create an additional 30 jobs. The Raspberry PI's made in the UK will be distributed by Premier Farnell.

One of the most interesting games to deal with a horrible social issue (child abuse) is getting a make-over and a re-release. Edmund McMillen's critically acclaimed game The Binding of Isaac is being remade by a new team, with plans for a release on consoles and the PC sometime next year. One of the key features will be local co-op play.

Another day, another milestone for a Minecraft game. According to a tweet from Mojang's business developer Daniel Kaplan the Xbox Live Edition of the popular world-building game has set a new sales record.

"I really love that Im back at work! And I was really surprised to see that 3.6 million people have now purchased Minecraft for Xbox. WOW! <3"

Microsoft is hosting the Gaming and Giving for Good (or G3) Xbox LIVE charity event on August 18, 2012 to benefit Extra Life, the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals fundraiser. By playing your favorite Xbox 360 games, you can help raise some much needed money for your local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital by gathering pledges for donations from friends and family. In support of the G3 event, Xbox LIVE is also offering a Free Gold Weekend to everyone on the weekend of August 18.

Game developer Snakehead Games wanted us to let our readers know that they are holding a writing contest related to its browser-based, cyberpunk themed game universe, StarCrash. The setting is used in two of its browser-based MMO games: Spybattle 2165 and Star Pirates.

According to a tweet from Mojang business developer Daniel Kaplan, the PC version of the company's ultra popular world-building, Zombie fighting game Minecraft has sold over 7 million copies since its launch.

"More than 7 million Minecraft (pc) copies sold!" Kaplan tweeted today.

This news is yet another indicator that Minecraft is going to make Mojang and its creator Markus 'Notch' Persson twice as much money as it did in 2011.

For the last four years, Westwood College's Anaheim Campus has put on the Gathering of Video Game Legends & Student Game-Concept Pitch Competition. This year's event will be held on August 18 from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. at the Westwood College Anaheim Campus (next to the Honda Center) in sunny Anaheim, California.

OUYA has managed to crack the $7 million dollar mark with a little over a day left to go before its crowd funding deadline on Kickstarter ends. As of this writing the $99 console has managed to raise $7,036,309 in funding (it started out with a $950,000 goal) from 52,932 backers. The Kickstarter campaign has 37 more hours to go.

On July 25 we reported that Gamers Against Bigotry had suffered a number of attacks and lost 1500 pledges to its cause. Relenting slightly, the group decided to launch an IndieGoGo campaign to raise awareness and $700 to fund ongoing operations. With a few hours left to go the organizers are happy to report that the campaign has managed to generate $3,252 so far.

Gamasutra has a fascinating article on how developers in war-torn regions cope with developing games in the midst of chaos and bloodshed created by violence. Some, like Radwan Kasmiya from Syria, have fled to other countries but still find the wars they ran away from having a long arm and a strong influence on the ability to practice their craft.