U.S. President Barack Obama has endorsed the National STEM Video Game Challenge, a campaign to "promote and support student learning" in the areas of science, tech, engineering and math (STEM) by developing video games.

Says the President: "Our success as a nation depends on strengthening America's role as the world's engine of discovery and innovation. I applaud partners in the National STEM Video Game Challenge for lending their resources, expertise, and their enthusiasm to the task of strengthening America's leadership in the 21st century by improving education in science, technology, engineering and math."

There are two categories for game developers, the "Developer Prize" for developers creating games aimed at children aged 4-9, and the "Youth Prize" for actual kid developers aged 10-13.

The top reward in the "Developer Prize" is $50,000. Other prizes inlcude "a Collegiate Prize of $25K for the best undergraduate or graduate student submission" and a "prize of $25K for the best submission that has the greatest potential to reach underserved populations."

Adds Michael Gallagher of the ESA: "Video games are improving and advancing the way Americans are living, working and playing. The acknowledgement and appreciation of President Obama, our partners in this campaign and leading child advocates, is a strong endorsement of the amazing potential and benefit that games can have on children."

The STEM challenge will accept all entries from October 12th until January 5th.

If you are interested in entering, check the official site here: National STEM Video Game Challenge

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Sony has said today that the company is well on its way to meet its forecasted PlayStation 3 fiscal year sales target of 15 million units.

The current fiscal year ends in March 2011.

"As of the end of August, sales look a bit better than we expected," noted Kazuo Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment (via Reuters).

Hirai, although bullish on the forecast, did remain somewhat muted, adding that the year-end holiday shopping season would be the real marker of how many units gets sold for the year.

Overall, the gaming industry has seen strong losses this year compared to 2009, with August alone seeing a 10 percent decline.

Sony plans to release its upcoming Move motion control system later this month.

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Multiple outlets are reporting this week that Apple is set to announce a newspaper subscription plan for the iPad tablet, one where revenue will be shared by the publishers and Apple.

As part of the deal, Apple will implement an opt-in feature that will let users share their personal info with publications. The publishers need that info to share demographics with advertisers.

Both parties have been in negotiations for such a plan since before the iPad launched in April. Publishers would not agree to the plan without the opt-in feature, calling demographic data "the most valuable asset."

Although the exact figures are unclear, it is believed the deal will give Apple a 30 percent cut of all subscriptions sold, similar to the share they take for music.

Additionally, Apple might take as much as 40 percent of advertising revenue.

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According to the latest comScore figures, Google slightly lost some share in the search engine market for August, with Yahoo and Bing picking up the slack.

For the month, Google fell to 65.4 percent from 65.8 percent in July and 66.2 percent in June.

Yahoo rose to 17.4 percent, up from 16.7 percent in June and 17.1 percent in July.

Microsoft's Bing engine remained about flat, moving from 11.0 percent in June and July to 11.1 percent in August.

Rounding out the top 5 were Ask at 3.8 percent and AOL at 2.3 percent, both flat.

Overall, about 15.7 billion explicit core searches were conducted in August.

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Speaking at the Sony TGS press conference, the company has let it be known that PlayStation 3 firmware update 3.50 will be released September 21st.

The firmware update is notable because it will give gamers Blu-ray 3D support for their console.

PS3 owners have had 3D gaming support for months, thanks to a past firmware update.

Sony recently updated the console to version 3.42, which breaks the ability of users to jailbreak the console using PSJailbreak/PSGroove/PSFreedom.

The BDA signed off on the final Blu-ray 3D specification in December.

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