Gabe Newell, the president and cofounder of Valve Corporation, and J.J. Abrams, the newly minted director of the next Star Wars film, are together for a keynote talk kicking off the D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas.

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has announced that Valve's Gabe Newell and Star Trek (and now Star Wars) director J. J. Abrams will be opening up 2013's D.I.C.E. Summit—with a joint discussion about storytelling, no less. Says Martin Rae, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences:

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences and Noodlehaus-produced live action Assassin's Creed III teaser trailer above kicks off a promotion for the 16th annual D.I.C.E. awards, which goes live on February 7th.

Comedian Jay Mohr won't be hosting the annual video game awards show at the D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas this year. He's hosted the awards every year since 2006, merrily insulting part of his audience full of gaming industry professionals and snarking about video games for over half a decade.