Gabe Newell and JJ Abrams to Collaborate

Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve Corporation and JJ Abrams, creator of Lost and Star Trek director announced yesterday that their companies will be collaborating on films and games. Since I couldn’t be there at the DICE summit, what it being held in Las Vegas and all, here’s a news post pieced together from half a dozen sources around the web.

During their keynote, the pair traded criticisms of film and games storytelling. According to Wired, Abrams said “Players are often asked to imprint themselves or relate to insanely mute empty vessels,” referring to Half-Life’s Gordon Freeman.

During a Cloverfield clip, Newell responded “I understand the narrative device, but as a gamer I’m saying ‘put the camera down and f**king run’ and I can’t do that,” as posted on IGN.

At the end of the keynote Newell said “We reached the point that we decided to do more than talk.” Abrams replied that he and Valve are working together to create either a Portal movie or a Half-Life movie.

Speaking later to Polygon, Abrams expanded further. “Both a Portal and Half-Life movie are things I want to see. We’re also aware of the cautionary tales of movies that became games and vice versa. Our goal here to is to treat the world Valve has created in both these properties like anyone would a book or some great story that comes from a pitch or original script — just to treat it with the respect they treat their games and their players with.”

He also hopes to collaborate on a game project. “We’re not looking to make a movie in the gaming world, we’re not looking to impose what we do on that, we’re looking forward to taking some of our strengths and collaborating with some of these incredible minds that make some of my favorite games.

“Just as I think they’re looking forward to taking some of their stories and the universe for some of their games and applying it to movies. I think they need to both be approached very differently.”

So there you have it. Abrams and Newell are almost certainly doing something together. Excited yet?