Valve co-founder and CEO Gabe Newell’s new startup plans to launch brain-computer interface chips (BCIs) as soon as 2025.

Newell’s company, Valve, owns the world’s largest game distribution platform, Steam, and has developed numerous acclaimed game series like Half Life, Portal, and Counter-Strike.

But don’t expect exciting gaming tie-ins from the new chips—at least not right now. Rather than using your brain to play much-rumored titles like Valve’s Half-Life 3, the new chips from Starfish Technologies seem earmarked for treating neurological disorders like Parkinson’s, much like Elon Musk’s Neuralink.

The company hopes the chips will one day form part of “minimally invasive, distributed neural interfaces” that have simultaneous access to multiple brain regions, enabling the “recording and stimulation of neural activity with a level of precision vastly exceeding what is possible with currently available systems.”

In the announcement, the startup said the chips are planned to emphasize “minimal size and low power,” with the “intent of future integration into a fully wireless, battery-free implant.” The startup thinks these chips could one day prove useful for treating disorders where “interactions between brain regions may be misregulated,” requiring “reading and writing to multiple connected parts of the brain at once” to treat.

While the new startup may be focusing on medical use cases, some of the world’s largest gaming companies, including Valve itself, have been openly discussing how brain-computer interface chips could help improve in-game experiences.

In a 2019 talk given at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), noted by The Verge, a Valve executive discussed how these types of brain interfaces could be used in the future by pro gamers to reduce their reaction times, or even to adapt gameplay in real-time based on players’ brain activity. For example, creating more enemies for a relaxed player, or fewer for a stressed player.

Though other gaming giants have been more tight-lipped about their brain interface aspirations, we’ve seen huge firms like Sony and Chinese tech giant Tencent file patents referencing brainwave-based controls. Meanwhile, plenty of examples have already emerged of disabled gamers using tools like Elon Musk’s Neuralink to play mainstream games like Counter-Strike.

Meanwhile, Apple is currently testing support for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) for iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS, in partnership with Brooklyn-based startup Synchron, using a synthetic vein implanted in the brain’s motor cortex. Synchron’s tech, though not without technical issues, has allowed victims of degenerative diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) to enjoy Apple devices.

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About Will McCurdy

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I’m a reporter covering weekend news. Before joining PCMag in 2024, I picked up bylines in BBC News, The Guardian, The Times of London, The Daily Beast, Vice, Slate, Fast Company, The Evening Standard, The i, TechRadar, and Decrypt Media.

I’ve been a PC gamer since you had to install games from multiple CD-ROMs by hand. As a reporter, I’m passionate about the intersection of tech and human lives. I’ve covered everything from crypto scandals to the art world, as well as conspiracy theories, UK politics, and Russia and foreign affairs.

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