They Want To Let You Smell Your Video Games


If gamers have a favourite buzzword, I’d say it’s “immersion”. We want to be immersed in the games we play, we want the experience to envelop us as best it can.

To that end we’ve had motion controls, virtual reality — things that enhance our experience by involving more of our senses. But smell? Smell is mostly off the radar, even though scent can be powerfully evocative.

Today at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco I met the folks at Sensory Acumen. They had a large black device:

They pressed a button and I could smell something resembling chocolate emanating from the unfortunately-named “Game Skunk” device. So it’s not quite there yet, but still — it was enough to make me hungry. I could see this device being a menace in games like Cooking Mama.

Beyond games, I was told that they’re interested in using the device for therapy, particularly for soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

At this rate, soon someone will invent the Smell-O-Scope from Futurama!


The Cheapest NBN 1000 Plans

Looking to bump up your internet connection and save a few bucks? Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Kotaku, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


10 responses to “They Want To Let You Smell Your Video Games”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *