Felicia Day And Freddie Wong Press Play As 17th D.I.C.E. Awards Co-Hosts

Twitch to Live Stream the Summit Sessions and Awards Show

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 23, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences is thrilled to introduce Felicia Day and Freddie Wong as co-hosts for the 17^th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards (#DICEAwards), the interactive industry's premier peer-based Awards show.  Day, an actress/producer, gamer and co-founder of the popular digital entertainment network Geek & Sundry, along with Wong, a filmmaker and competitive gamer, proudly wear their geek badges with honor and have become synonymous with the fun and quirks that define video game culture.  They'll bring their unique blend of gaming know-how and humor to the Feb. 6 event at the Hard Rock Las Vegas Hotel and Casino.

Fans across the globe also will have a chance to check out the co-hosts live at the D.I.C.E. Awards and catch some of their favorite game developers participating in the two-day 2014 D.I.C.E. Summit preceding the Awards show(#DICE2014).   Following a successful partnership at D.I.C.E. Europe, the Academy today also announced it will once again join forces with Twitch, the world's leading video platform and community for gamers with more than 45 million visitors per month, to stream the Summit and Awards show. For the first time ALL the Summit sessions will be live streamed, kicking off with the first session on Wednesday, Feb. 4, at 9:45 AM, and concluding with the last session on Thursday, Feb. 5, 5 PM PST. The Awards show will be live streamed on Thursday, Feb. 6, beginning at 7:30 PM PST.  Both can be viewed at http://www.twitch.tv/dice.

"I'm thrilled to be hosting the D.I.C.E. Awards this year with Freddie Wong," said Felicia Day.  "I presented in 2012 and got a really cool t-shirt, so who knows what I'll bring home this year. Maybe Randy Pitchford in a suitcase."

"I've been practicing reading off a homemade teleprompter, with the goal of not embarrassing myself in a room full of nerds," said Freddie Wong.  "I'm excited to co-host with Felicia and hope my two days of self-imposed hosting practice will pay off."

"The D.I.C.E. week is about The New Golden Age, and Felicia and Freddie's respective work very much reflects this theme as they have become true trailblazers in the expanding world of web-based video.  They are a perfect fit for the stage as they are gamers at heart who will not only entertain, but also celebrate and honor our industry's game makers and creative visionaries," said Martin Rae, president, Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.  "Twitch has been a fantastic partner and we are looking forward to re-engaging with their audience to share the stellar sessions and Awards show that have defined our organization."

"We have more than 100 publishers and developers using Twitch to generate excitement and build communities around their games, so having the D.I.C.E. Summit on our platform really complements the trend and is a great honor," said Matthew DiPietro, VP of Marketing, Twitch.

Felicia Day is a professional actress who has appeared in numerous mainstream television shows and films, currently recurring on the CW show "Supernatural", and recently completing a two-season arc on the SyFy series "Eureka". However, Felicia is best known for her work in the web video world, behind and in front of the camera. She co-starred in Joss Whedon's Internet musical "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," which was ranked in the "Top 10 Best TV of 2008" by Time Magazine, Entertainment Weekly and People Magazine and won an Emmy in 2009. She also created and starred in the hit web series "The Guild." "The Guild" has won numerous awards for web video excellence, garnering a Producers Guild Awards nomination for best web series in 2011. She has expanded the brand into numerous merchandising opportunities, including a hit comic book series with Dark Horse Comics. Her production company Knights of Good produced the innovative web series "Dragon Age" in conjunction with EA/Bioware in 2011 and she later co-founded a digital entertainment network called Geek & Sundry. Since launching in April of 2012, its YouTube channel has garnered more than 800,000 subscribers and more than 75 million views.

Freddie Wong has placed himself as one of the pioneers in online video, bringing professional premium content to the YouTube platform with his channel, FreddieW. His uniquely crafted, mind bending viral videos have spread across the global web making Freddie the #1 most subscribed video director on YouTube with over 900 million views since the channel's inception in April 2010. Video Game High School, his flagship web series, gained over 50 million cumulative views over 12, 15-minute episodes in 2012. Video Game High School 2 retuned the YouTube viewership trend by receiving over a 90% completion rate on 6 episodes of 30-minute content.

To purchase tickets to the Awards show please visit: www.dicesummit.org

SOURCE Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences