Virtual reality is seen as paving the way for the next generation of interactive entertainment. But right now, it's quite limited. There's cables to worry about, you need extra gadgets in order to immerse other parts of your body beyond your vision, and even then you need a large empty environment in which to enjoy it without injury.
Japanese video game publisher and developer Koei Tecmo doesn't want to wait for virtual reality technology to mature, so it came up with an alternative. Rather than wearing a VR headset, it created a virtual reality machine a person sits inside.
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It's called VR Sense and promises to stimulate all five of our senses. It looks similar to a typical arcade racing game, with a seat in front of a display. However, VR Sense offers 3D visuals as well as a "fragrance function, touch function, wind function, thermal cooling function, and mist function." So you'll be able to smell the action, experience the wind rushing through you hair, temperature changes, and if it's raining in a game you're going to get wet.
According to TheWolfHall, VR Sense is expected to launch at some point in the summer and looks likely to first appear in Japanese arcades. Three games will be included at launch. They are a GI Jockey horse racing game, an entry in the long-running Dynasty Warriors series of games, and an as yet untitled VR horror game that's sure to be extra scary if Koei Tecmo stimulates all five senses properly.
Interested gamers will have to pay per play, and while pricing has yet to be announced, I doubt this will be a cheap machine to use. Hopefully VR Sense makes it outside of Japan so we can give it a try. I'd really like to know what fear smells like, and the fragrance function on this machine may answer that question in the horror game.