Earlier this year GameScent showcased at PAX, and a couple other conventions, showing off their new technology for video gaming. This device syncs to your console and uses AI to listen to sound and imagery and provide scents based on what you’re doing in your video game, as a way to make gameplay more immersive for the player.
If you’re playing your racing game, it might release a scent that fills the room with rubber during a peel out. Or if you’re in an adventure RPG game and you’re walking through a forest, it might release smells of a meadow, while in places like beaches, they might release an ocean breeze. In a first person shooter, engaged in a firefight, it might release the smell of gunsmoke into your room. These scent based additions makes the gaming situation a bit more realistic, and helps gamers feel more connected to the game in the momment.
Everything is wired and needs to be connected which can be a bit frustrating. The main unit is plugged into power and then communicates wirelessly through the app to the AI sync box. The AI sync box is connected to the HDMI from your source input and then back out through to the device and well as having an audio line only option.
Setup for the device requires use of an app on your phone so that you can connect and your sync device. The main unit holds 6 scents, with the primary scent as gunfire but other scents can be swap out as wanted, since GameScent is planning multiple options down the line.
The total scents available are (6) Six including gunfire, explosion, racing, storm, forest, and air neutralizer in the base product. Additional expansion scents are coming in the form of ocean, fresh cut grass, zombie, blood, big city and more.
Once you’ve set up the system through your phone and then connect it to each other, there’s nothing more that you need to do for controlling the system other than just loading up your game console and playing your preferred title to experience the GameScent. If you’d like to launch a scent yourself, you can do that through the app as a way to test to see what they smell like, but it is not necessary for gameplay as the system will launch the smells on their own.
I’m pretty sensitive to smells, so I did find that the system was a little bit too close to me for my personal preference and it did start to give me headaches as a result of my sensitivity like normal cologne and perfume will do to me. That sitatuon was easily rectified though by placing it a little further away from from myself, and allowing it to gently and less potently waft into my direction as I was playing.
Besides that small issue for people with sensitivities, I will say that this was an amazing and interesting new way to engage in immersive gameplay. It reminds me of Scratch-&-Sniff cards and how they gave people scent while watching, playing, or engaging another media, but unlike those this does it all automatically for you and with the help of AI and the app will produce the smells on the fly, allowing the player to be fully immersed in the game without having to have a preset or pre-organized list of scents that release at specific times.
If you want to purchase your own Game Scent, you can do so Here.
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