ESPN.com announced today that it has entered a content agreement with Major League Gaming to bring competitive professional gaming to the ESPN network.

As part of the agreement, ESPN will serve as an outlet for MLG news and provide coverage of the league's 2008 Pro Circuit Competitions with streaming matches, scores and professional player interviews. The network plans to provide coverage to a variety of its programs and platforms. MLG will host ESPN co-branded online gaming tournaments. Read more »

In the pursuit of higher education, Florida's Ringling College of Art and Design has licensed Crytek's CryENGINE 2 middleware. The initial participant in Crytek's educational licensing program, Ringling is the first academic institution to implement CryENGINE 2 into its curriculum. "We are thrilled Crytek has chosen Ringling College as its inaugural partner for educational licensing," said Ringling president Dr. Larry Thompson. "We view this CryENGINE 2 agreement as a validation of the exceptional and innovative academic program we have created here and feel privileged to have Crytek as one of our newest business partners." "The ranks of the Ringling alumni reads like a who's who of the computer graphics world, as do the companies they work for," noted Crytek director Faruk Yerli. "Our own director of animation is an alumnus, which shows you how highly we regard their graduates." "Now that Ringling will be training their students using our engine and tools," he continued, "we look forward in the coming years to welcoming even more future graduate game designers and animators to our employ, as will the ever growing list of companies who have chosen to license the CryENGINE 2 for their own productions.” CryENGINE 2 is utilized in Crytek's upcoming PC shooter Crysis and Paleo Entertainment's futuristic mob shooter Merchants of Brooklyn as well as MMOs from Reloaded Studios, MindArk, XMLGames and Avatar Reality.