Valve Co-Founder and President Gabe Newell spoke to 1 NEWS about his own vision for the future of the gaming industry. According to him, the games have reached a certain limit that needs to be overcome.
Vavle develops Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) designed to connect the brain directly to the PC. At the same time, Newell understands that this does not sound more believable than science fiction, but it is necessary to develop ideas in this direction.
If you are a software developer and in 2022 you will not have BCI in your test labs, you are making a stupid mistake. The real world will appear flat, colorless, blurry compared to the experience you can create in the human brain.
Valve’s development is based on open source and is assisted by OpenBCI. In fact, games will be able to automatically adjust to the state of the gamer. For example, if it’s too boring or easy, the game will fix it.
For now, the perception of games is limited to the physical body, Newell said, while the brain will allow the potential of various titles to be unleashed. In addition, brain computer interfaces will help in other areas as well.
One of the first applications I expect we’ll see is sleep enhancement. Sleep becomes the application that you launch when you say, “Oh, I need this much sleep.”
However, with the advent of BCI, another problem will appear – interface hacking. Then the owners of such “helmets” run the risk of experiencing pain or suffering certain injuries. Therefore, the BCI security system must be at the highest level.
Of course, there can be no talk of commercial implementation yet. Valve is only doing research and, according to the head of the company, is quite successful.