Could Call of Duty: Modern Warfare XXIV let players tea-bag one another just by thinking about it? Bobby Kotick seems to think so, having attended an employee meeting recently where he gave his thoughts on a range of subjects, including what could be in store for gamers in the farther-off future. According to Kotick, who has served as Activision’s CEO since 1991, controllers aren’t even going to be a thing in the years ahead, as future games will probably be played with devices similar to Neuralink, the implantable brain–computer interface overseen by Elon Musk that aims to let users control things with their mind. Neuralink already teased this idea back in 2021 when it uploaded a video of a monkey playing “MindPong,” although it might be worth noting that this monkey is probably now dead following complications that have been reported to include “bloody diarrhea, partial paralysis, and cerebral edema.” Neuralink launched in-human trials for its device in September.
When discussing the future of gaming, Kotick went well beyond ideas like VR or the metaverse and name-checked Elon Musk’s Neuralink, a chip that lets you control and interact with devices with your mind, as where he thinks gaming is actually going at some point:
“I think you’ll see things like Neuralink, you’ll actually be able to interact with things on the screen, where there isn’t a controller,” Kotick said, qualifying this may mean a headset, earpiece, or “other type of sensor.”