Gabe Newell is living the life right now in New Zealand, one of the first (if not the first) countries that have defeated COVID-19 thanks to intelligent conversations and a mild bit of discipline.
Gabe Newell, well-known for his contributions to PC gaming that include not only the Steam platform and Valve‘s entire existence, but also Linux compatibility-work with Windows applications, was down in New Zealand with friends and family after Half-Life: Alyx dropped for some much-needed R&R.
Then COVID-19 struck, and they decided to bunker down in New Zealand to wait out the pandemic; leading to the group of friends to host an extravagant party for kiwis as thanks for the hospitality.
Gabe Newell was invited onto the talk show The Project to discuss the upcoming free event, and the hosts picked his mind on a couple of other things while they had the legendary developer close at hand.
Notably, when asked about the upcoming console drop of Xbox Series X versus PlayStation 5, Gabe Newell instantly responded that the Xbox was the easy winner of the two.
Some theorized that this is due to Gabe’s history of working with Microsoft within their studios, but Gabe has also been pushing for Linux to be more accepted in the PC world; a move that makes him and Microsoft enemies far more readily than they would friends.
Yet Gabe also stated that the next big thing beyond VR is brain-interfacing and that it is far closer to reality than most would believe.
Using a computer chip that would interact with the brain, brain-interfacing would be a massive step closer to the Matrix in ways that Sword Art Online never imagined.
Gabe clarifies that we won’t necessarily be jamming a power cord into the back of our skull if we don’t want to; non-invasive methods of interfacing are apparently being looked at as well.
Frankly, it’s all almost a bit beyond belief; our consciousness being transported to where we’re existing, for all intent and purpose, inside of a virtual environment could make the next iteration of Dark Souls a test of intestinal fortitude that will result in some people literally dying of fright.
No companies have yet gone public with brain-interfacing and how those titles would look, or even be interacted with; there have been rumors circling of various giants having a card or two to play, however, and multiple universities have had success with using brainwaves to control external objects.
This could be the future where the newest console installation requires a trip to the brain surgeon; we’re unsure if this is fascinating or unsettling.