Burnt rubber and gunfire are not the most pleasing of smells, but for action games, they might be the most common. At least, that’s true for GameScent, a new device that aims to make gaming more immersive by adding smell to the equation.
GameScent, which dropped late last month to a bit of fanfare and some snickering, uses an adapter and an app on your phone to capture audio while you play. It then feeds those audio cues into the company’s “innovative AI,” which then triggers certain smells.
It’s a hexagonal device, compatible with most consoles, PCs, and virtual reality setups, built to hold six different aromas at a time. At launch, those smells are called Gunfire, Explosion, Forest, Storm, Racing Cars, and Clean Air—perhaps the most important, as it’s intended to neutralize whatever odors may linger.
“We feel like we are adding the missing link, if you will, to gaming, which is the use of olfaction,” says GameScent president Casey Bunce. Future scents the company intends to release include Ocean, Sports Arena, and—perhaps troublingly—Blood.
Bunce says that the device’s launch scents—which I’d argue are not the most aromatically pleasing lineup—were largely decided based on requests from gamers. They wanted smells to go along with action or horror games, thus all the explosions and gore.
