For years as hundreds of Star Trek comics and novels were being published, they were officially viewed as nothing more than licensed fan fiction. Only the on-screen stuff was considered to be official canon, but with the JJ Abrams version of Star Trek; everything they oversee is considered to be official canon. That includes the recent comic books and the upcoming game. Orci revealed this bit of news in an interview with TrekMovie:

Roberto Orci: OK, based on that then with you Anthony Pascale as a witness, I hereby declare anything that we oversee to be canon.

TrekMovie.com: OK! Do we need to get that in writing? Do we need to get the ghost of Gene Roddenberry to notarize this?

Roberto Orci: Let’s call his son Rod, I’ve got him on speed dial.

This is a big change to the EU of Trek as it certainly opens up the story possibilities and personally I now want to read the new comics as they are no longer just fan fiction.