Game worlds are vast places full of sounds and images. With the advent of virtual reality, we can almost touch these environments. But smell has always been a sense that gaming technology has been unable to capture. Fortunately, a new device aims to solve this shortcoming.
GameScent is a new product from the same name companies. Powered by AI, this $180 box intercepts sound in real time and processes those sounds to release appropriate scents. So if you’re playing Need for Speed Unbound, you’ll be smelling the smells from the track.
This rather large box – 45x40x30 centimeters – will allow you to smell many flavors in games. Playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and just got killed? Your nose will catch the smells of explosions and gunfire hovering over the battlefield. Are you caught in the rain in the forests of Horizon Forbidden West? GameScent will release scents related to nature and storms. There are a total of six scents in the device’s palette – Shots, Explosions, Forest, Racing, Storm and Clean Air to eliminate fumes in the room.
In a press release, GameScent President Casey Bunch said the device is fully compatible with consoles, PCs and VR headsets, adding that the company wants to “elevate” the gaming experience with olfactory-based technology.
Research has shown that smells are imprinted in long-term memory more strongly than anything else. With GameScent, we hope to make gamers’ gaming experiences more immersive and memorable than ever before.
This isn’t the first scent technology of its kind aimed at gamers. In 2023, at CES, the Japanese company Aromajoin presented a device called Aroma Shooter, which “digitizes” odors. It was hellishly expensive – $998. By comparison, the GameScent’s price tag is more affordable, although it’s not yet known how much the device’s “easy-to-replace cartridges” will cost. But a content update is planned for it. The company said GameScent will have more scents in the future, including Blood, Fresh Cut Grass, Sports Arena and Ocean.
