Playseat Immersion Gaming Chair & Challenge Folding Racing Seat - PAX Prime 2013
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2014-05-07
·
754 words · ~3 min read
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Linus Tech Tips coverage of PAX 2013 is brought to you by Western Digital,
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Intel, and Steel Series.
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Play Seat. You may know them as the makers of fine racing chairs or flight
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sim chairs, but what you probably don't know them for is the makers of more like
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a media chair or something that looks great in your living room and is also
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designed for gaming. So this, my friends, is the first prototype of the
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immersion. So this was built for E3 and
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is being shown off for the second time here at PAX Prime in order to get user
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feedback from real gamers. It is
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designed to be extremely comfortable, but you're still going to have those
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play seat features that you've come to expect. So, there are two mid-range
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speakers built into the headrest up here, as well as a 5 watt subwoofer that
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is built into the base of the seat. That's going to give you both an
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auditory experience and a sort of, you know, a tactile vibrational bum
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experience that really, I think, is uh is helpful when you're trying to have an
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explosive sort of thing going on and you
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can really feel it instead of just hearing it. On the side here is the
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control panel. So, it's got support for both analog in and Bluetooth in, so you
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can't just use it with your games. You can also use it with something like an
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Apple TV that is able to beam audio over Bluetooth. There's also a pass through,
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so you can opt to not use the built-in speakers and use your headphones
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instead. And because they're taking user feedback, they're looking at the
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possibility of adding even more features such as, oh, I don't know, say a USB
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port on the side because you're already powering the thing anyway. So that way
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you could charge your controller or your smartphone or whatever else you might
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want while you're sitting in your gaming chair. The construction is obviously not
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final, but we're expecting it to have an adjustable headrest. So, right now it's
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a very very very prototype, but don't worry that'll stay in place once the
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final product is completed. And right now, there's not really much range of
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motion for tilting back, but that's something that they are taking the
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feedback from gamers very seriously and
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looking into implementing as well. The thing that I like about this is that
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unlike that chair, which is awesome and
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super cool and amazing, this one is one
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that I don't have to think about, do I need to put this away when the relatives
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are coming so that there's room for everyone to sit. Anyone can sit in this,
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not just a gamer. So, if you don't have the space to store something like that
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or you don't have the room for it, you could just have living room furniture
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that is play seat immersions and no one would be any of the wiser if you
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unplugged them when they came over. So, no one trips on the cables or anything.
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Expected MSRP is around $5.99. And when
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you consider what a nice living room chair costs, starting to look pretty
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good. But what if you wanted a racing seat? You just want a racing seat. It's
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not okay to have a gaming seat that you play with with a controller and you want
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a steering wheel and foot pedals and all those things. This is still pretty new.
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This was released in spring this year and I'm going to have my lovely
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assistant Kelly Jeffrey
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say hi. Hello. Thank you. That's awesome. You're incredible. fold this up
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and show us how it can be stored in a
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closet or somewhere out of the way if you don't necessarily want to have a
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rigid metal structure sitting in the middle of your living room or in your
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gaming den or wherever else the case may be. So, just like that, this is the
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challenge. It folds up and that is
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pretty darn innovative, guys. Thank you so much. Don't miss any of our PAX Prime
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coverage. Our trip to the show here is covered by Western Digital Intel and
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Steel Series. So, a big thanks to those guys for making this possible.