When we look to the future of PC gaming, we think of faster CPUs, the next wave of graphics cards and 3D, but there is one dimension we haven't considered. Later this year a company called ScentSciences will release Scent Scape, a system that will use cartridges to deliver the scents of the game you're playing direct to your nostrils. By the end of 2011 you could be "smelling your favourite character."
The system is designed to release different smells to reflect what's happening on the screen, so a shotgun blast might release a scent of gunpowder, and a trip around Orgrimmar will bombard you with the sweet smell of Orc sweat. The device comes with 20 built-in smells that pack in up to 200 hours of pong, and even comes with a volume knob that will let you dial up the odour's intensity. There are plans to release different cartridge packs for different games, including one for World of Warcraft.
William Wiles, President and CEO of Scent sciences explains the advantages of being able to smell your games. “Adding scent completed the total immersion into the user experience that the gaming and entertainment communities are striving for as the next step to 3D. If we do our job right, in five years you would not even consider buying a gaming or entertainment system without scent in much the same manners as when creative labs intergraded sound into the environment."
The device is set for release in Autumn this year, and will cost $70. There's also an Smellovision development kit available that will let people create their own smell-o-tracks to games and films. Check out the ScentScience site for more information.
Will you be picking one up? What games or characters would you want to smell?
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Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.
