The folks at Sumo Lounge sent out some Omni beanbags recently for review. For the Gizmodo opinion you can check out what Nick had to say over there (he liked it). I thought I’d go for the gaming perspective and see just how versatile and comfortable a beanbag could be as an all purpose gaming seat.
When this thing arrived, I have to admit I was shocked. The pictures don’t quite convey how industrial the nylon skin really looks — this ain’t the old velour or corduroy style beanbag I remember from the ’80s. It’s also shaped more like a giant pillow than a traditional beanbag, which made it hard to grasp how it would work for anything other than lying down. So at first glance the question was “THAT is meant to be comfortable? No way.”
But it is! For best results, I found sitting it up square on its seam made comfortable seating work like a charm. But by flipping it around in a variety of ways, you could get comfortable for doing different things.Gamewise, I found it comfortable for kicking back and enjoying some general console play. That’s a given. But what was unexpected was that it could be adjusted to work as a very comfortable — and stable — drum stool for World Tour (kind of like how the girl is sitting on the Omni in the picture). I was also able to get more comfortable with the 360 steering wheel on my lap than I could on the couch. It’s also very supportive, and not the kind of comfortable where you end up with a numb ass and a displaced hip 30 minutes in.
In essence, this is a pretty good one-size-fits-all seat for your games room. It does take up a fair amount of space, though, taking up a similar amount of floor space to a two-seater couch — not quite as much, but enough that you wonder how to kick it out of the way when not in use. If you have the space, and the $199 (stick it on a group gift Christmas wishlist!) it’s a good option. I think a lot of people forget about the comfort factor for their game sessions, and this is definitely a beanbag that delivers.
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