Video-game themed military charity Operation Supply Drop announced the launch of a new mentorship program to support veteran-owned businesses, with a focus on the video game and entertainment space. The goal of the program is to encourage other veterans to look at starting their own businesses after returning home from a long deployment overseas.  HeroCrate is the first veteran-founded company that Operation Supply Drop has partnered with as part of this mentorship program.

The Entertainment Software Foundation was honored earlier this week by ThanksUSA for providing grant money that directly benefits the ongoing educational needs of the spouses and children of United States armed forces personnel serving around the world. ThanksUSA describes itself as a non-partisan, charitable effort to mobilize Americans of all ages to "thank" the men and women of the United States armed forces and also provides college, technical and vocational school scholarships for the children and spouses of active-duty status military personnel.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced today that four people have been indicted for allegedly breaching the computer systems of several video game companies and the US military, and stealing software worth over $100 million.

In an interview with Polygon, Visceral Games' Ian Milham, the creative director of the upcoming cops v. robbers first-person shooter Battlefield Hardlines, tackles the thorny subject of the militarization of police departments in America. The subject came to the forefront of conversation after the police force in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri rolled out armored vehicles and military gear in response to large scale protests over the shooting of Michael Brown.

Design Interactive, an Army Research Labs contractor, is using Microsoft's Kinect to create an augmented reality program that simulates sand for the U.S. military. The technology was recently shown off at the Modern Day Marine Expo at the Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., according to the Marine Corps. Times.

On behalf of everyone here at GamePolitics and the ECA we wish our readers a safe and happy holiday. We hope you are enjoying your extended weekend and are out (or in, as the case may be) having fun on the unofficial start of summer.

If you want an explanation of what Memorial Day is all about and why it is a very important holiday to a majority of Americans, then you should check out usmemorialday.org.

The new version of the U.S. Army's official training simulator is getting a little more realistic about weight and how it affects soldiers in the field. The Army's official simulation software, Virtual Battlespace 3, developed by Bohemia Interactive (makers of ARMA and DayZ), adds avatar customization. If a soldier using the simulation is overweight, his or her avatar will look overweight. But more than mere aesthetics, that weight will affect fatigue levels on the virtual field of battle.

World of Tanks and World of Planes maker Wargaming today announced its plans to join with its long-term partner the Russian Kubinka Tank Museum to reconstruct and put back in running condition the only remaining Panzer VIII Maus tank.

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 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.

World of Tanks and World of War Planes maker Wargaming announced today the global launch of an augmented reality application that draws attention to the Dornier 17 aircraft currently being exhibited at the RAF Museum in Cosford, Shropshire, United Kingdom.

A brief report in the Canadian Press reveals that the Canadian military is keen to start using video games and video-game related simulations in the future to train its soldiers. In fact, officials say that games like Call of Duty will play an "increasing role in its training in the future."

Military-focused gaming charity Operation Supply Drop sent along an inspiring note about a recent happening at the Fort Eustis Wounded Warrior Transition Unit. The group stopped by the military medical facility to throw the injured soldiers staying there a pizza party and video game raffle just in time for the holidays. The operation, code named BATTLE WAGON, included the donation of brand new Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles on mobile 19" GAEMS Vanguard cases so they can be wheeled into soldier's rooms who are unable to leave their beds.

The Battlefield 4 DLC, China Rising, is taking some heat in the editorial page of the Chinese military newspaper Zhongguo Guofangbao, according to the South China Morning Post (as reported by Polygon).

The standalone early access version of the zombie survival game DayZ has managed to generate sales in the $5.1 million range in its first 24 hours since launch, with new players joining the zombie survival adventure every hour (88,000 survivors joined in the first 12 hours), according to Bohemia Interactive's CEO Maruk Spanel.

He revealed on his blog that, after 24 hours of being made available, 172,500 copies of the game had been sold and 142,403 players were online. The early access version of the game landed on Steam earlier this week.

Yesterday Polygon wrote an excellent article detailing the back story on Operation Supply Drop, the military focused gaming charity that sends video game-related care packages to soldiers deployed in combat zones around the world and recovering in military hospitals.

World of Tanks maker Wargaming and event sponsor NVIDIA announced the winners of the NVIDIA GeForce eSports World of Tanks Veteran’s Day 1-Million Gold Charity Division held this past November. Over 280 teams and 800 players participated in the competition, vying for a massive in-game prize pool.

Game related charity Operation Supply Drop announced that it has received $12,000 in gaming gear from two gaming accessory developers: MOGA and Power A. Power A has donated a variety of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 wireless Batman themed controllers, while MOGA sent the charity 350 of their MOGA Gaming Controller, which can be snapped onto any Android mobile device and turn into a portable gaming system. The items will be put into care packages for soldiers deployed in combat zone around the world and recovering in military hospitals.

Military gaming charity Operation Supply Drop passed along word today that during the month of November it managed to raise what it called a record-shattering $302,187 worth of games and swag for soldiers and sailors deployed overseas as well as recovering in military hospitals. Much of that tally for the month of November came from game developers and corporations.

ThanksUSA and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) Foundation announced the launch of the ninth annual ThanksUSA Treasure Hunt (TH9), a free, fully interactive digital trivia and puzzle game about U.S. history, culture and values. The annual hunt supports ThanksUSA's annual scholarship fund to benefit the children and spouses of active-duty military personnel by providing scholarships for two-year or four-year colleges, vocational or technical schools. The focus of this year's hunt will be the Bill of Rights.

Operation Supply Drop has raised nearly $300,000 in games and gear for Veterans Day through its 8-Bit Salute drive. The military gaming charity surpassed last year's $58,000 in games and gear raised by over five times with the grand total of $282,721. Donations are still coming in, so that figure is sure to continue trending upwards. The donations will be sent out as a part of Operation Supply Drop's end-of-the-year 8-Bit Salute fundraising drive to build video game care packages for soldiers deployed to combat zones and recovering in military hospitals.

PopCap Games is the latest game developer to show its support for Operation Supply Drop. The makers of Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled have donated $100,000 in games and gear for Operation Supply Drop's 8-Bit Salute! fund-raising campaign. PopCap gave 100 codes which unlocked every game PopCap has ever made including their fan favorites Peggle, Plants vs. Zombies, Bejeweled as well as plethora of other casual titles (over 60 games in all).

Military-related gaming charity Operation Supply Drop passed along an inspirational story this afternoon about a suicide bomb survivor who received a special post-surgery surprise from the group.

Military-based gaming charity Operation Supply Drop has received the promise of 30 4 inch-by-4-inch micro computers from Intel. The chipmaker will build and donate the absurdly small and powerful Intel NUC computers to the charity to be given out to troops deployed in combat zones in places like Afghanistan and to soldiers recovering from injuries in military hospitals.

Zombie Studios, creator of upcoming survival horror game Daylight, has donated $25,000 of in game currency for their flagship first person shooter, Blacklight: Retribution on Steam to Operation Supply Drop.

Defense Grid series creators Hidden Path Entertainment has donated one thousand codes for their nifty Defense Grid: Containment Bundle on Steam. The codes are equivalent to a $20,000 donation.

Gaming charity Operation Supply Drop has successfully delivered a care package to a Special Forces team in Afghanistan as part of its ongoing efforts to deliver video games and fun to soldiers deployed in various combat zones around the world. The "Kentucky Windage" supply drop contained $4300 in video games, systems, peripherals and a High School Musical branded microphone for Guitar Hero (we assume this was a special request from someone).

While the lawmakers haggle over ideologies and leave the government unfunded, Operation Supply Drop gets things done. At least, that's what they are telling supporters in a new mail-out today.

The United States Navy has commissioned Organic Motion to create a Kinect-enabled simulation game that addresses the issue of rape. Rape and sexual harassment have been a topic of heated debate in Washington this month as lawmakers such as New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (supported by republican Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky) seek to move the oversight of rape cases from the military to civilian courts. Mainly Gillibrand is seeking this solution because the U.S.

Operation Supply Drop, a charity that creates care packages for servicemen and women on active duty in war zones, managed to create and send 12 care packages to five U.S. military units deployed across Afghanistan and one package to a soldier who was injured in Afghanistan and is currently recuperating at the Walter Reed national military hospital. Collectively, the 12 packages (part of their latest drive for the 4th of July, code named PIXEL FIREWORKS) contained $30,000 in video games, video game systems, and special peripherals donated by AbleGamers.