Reducing costs is a driving force behind ESPN’s decision to shoot Friday Night Fights all in 3D this Friday, said Phil Orlins, coordinating producer of ESPN 3D, in a conference call Wednesday. Boxing is “well-suited to do that,” he said, saying side-by-side 2D/3D production “is a significant cost hurdle.” Orlins wouldn’t disclose the cost savings of creating an all-3D production and then taking the left eye HD feeds of each camera for the 2D channel. The network will take the same approach next week, Orlins said, when it telecasts an NCAA men’s basketball game between Georgia and Florida on Feb. 24. Looking ahead, each 3D event will be assessed on a “case by case” basis and “we'll do it where it makes sense,” he said, saying not all sports can be shot effectively that way.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has been looking to add computer peripherals, printers, DVD and VCR players and recorders and fax and fax/printer/scanner combo machines to the state’s mandatory recycling electronics products list, said a department official. But a working group set up by the department couldn’t reach “consensus on the potential products,” said Kathy Kiwala, head of the Oregon’s electronics recycling program. So it’s now up the state legislature to act, she said.

Zynga will use Google Android-based games to extend the reach of its social networking titles on mobile devices, Chief Game Designer Brian Reynolds told us Tuesday at the International Toy Fair in New York. With the December buy of software developer Newtoy, Zynga is readying an Android version of the company’s popular Words With Friends crossword game that was released last year for iPad.

Jakks Pacific is “on track for a positive 2011,” but is “still mindful” of lingering challenges, CEO Stephen Berman said in a Tuesday earnings call. He pointed to Asian manufacturing issues including “expected labor shortages” and possible “increased pricing pressures,” though he later said he didn’t expect further pricing pressure this year.

Cisco was the lead investor in a recent $15 million round of funding for Control4 as part of a partnership announced this week between the companies that will integrate Control4 technology with Cisco’s Service Delivery Platform in worldwide connected smart community and utility smart grid programs. Under the agreement, Cisco will stamp its brand on Control4 products including lighting devices, remote controls, touchscreens, and thermostats, the companies said.

CEA approached the Utah Department of Environmental Quality on plans to draw up an e-waste program that could serve as a national model, but “nothing has been done to date,” said a department official. “What we saw from them was a draft but we never saw anything specific as far as what they were going to do,” said Allen Moore, environmental program manager in the Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste. “It never materialized in anything.” But CEA and department officials did provide input for a recent e-waste bill (HB-102) introduced in the state legislature, he said.

LAS VEGAS -- Nexon America is seeing the free-to-play with pay microtransactions business model that it specializes in start to be embraced in the U.S. market “on social platforms [and] on mobile devices -- and that’s something that we're starting to look into,” CEO Daniel Kim told us at the Design Innovate Communicate Entertain (D.I.C.E.) Summit last week. To take advantage of that, the company plans to expand its connected online games from the PC to unspecified mobile devices and social networks “definitely within this year,” he said.

With the awareness of 3D increasing, the technology is edging its way into toys, but in a smaller and less sophisticated manner than it arrived in CE, industry executives said Monday at the International Toy Fair in New York.

EchoStar agreed to acquire Hughes Communications for about $2 billion, including Hughes’ debt, which is “expected to be refinanced in connection with the transaction,” the companies said Monday. The agreement, which has already been approved by the companies’ boards, faces federal regulatory approval, including from the FCC, the companies said. Industry observers said they didn’t see an obvious reason for regulators to block the deal, though it could be affected by other acquisition efforts. The deal includes Hughes Communications’ largest subsidiary, satellite broadband provider Hughes Network Systems, the companies said.

Barnes & Noble issued an open letter to Amazon affiliates Monday inviting them to “join the Barnes & Noble affiliate family.” Amazon has threatened to end its affiliate program in any state that enacts legislation requiring the company to collect sales tax on residents’ purchases, said the letter, signed by John Foley, BN.com’s president.