EMB 1/5 1pm et | Razer
Razerโs lineup of gaming chairs is expanding into new territory with the Enki Pro HyperSense, a chair that can vibrate and wobble to the action happening in your games and movies. This model houses a haptic engine near the wheels that should deliver jolts of haptic feedback through the chair. Additionally, the Enki Pro HyperSense should tilt backward or lift you vertically by 1.5 inches with around 1G of force. Itโs all done with up to a 5ms response time.
If this sounds familiar, what Razerโs going for is similar to D-Boxโs movie theater seats that can rumble and move. In fact, Razer collaborated with D-Box to incorporate the haptics and movements into the Enki Pro HyperSense. Razerโs seems to differ in one key way: itโs on wheels. The Enki Pro HyperSense is still very much a computer chair but with some extra features, to put it lightly.
The big question with this chair is compatibility, which is a funny sentence to write. Razer says that over 2,200 games, movies, and music tracks offer native support. That seems like a lot, but in terms of games, Razer only shared Forza Horizon 5, Assassinโs Creed Valhalla, and F1 2021 as a couple of examples that will work. As it turns out, Razerโs mostly quoting games that are listed on D-Boxโs page of compatible games. If Razer is leaving it up to D-Box, adding support for more games might be out of its control.
Razer
A look at the haptics engine inside of the Enki Pro HyperSense. Whatโs not shown are the wires youโll need to power it and connect to your PC.
To that end, itโs unclear whether Razer will ask owners of the Enki Pro HyperSense to download D-Boxโs Game Center software, which can add specific motion codes to supported games to make them work with D-Box chairs or if itโs incorporating these features into its Synapse PC software. Weโve reached out for clarification.
The somewhat good news for PC gamers, though, is that the Enki Pro HyperSense can at least guarantee haptic feedback and movement via Direct Input haptics, โwhere controller, keyboard and mouse inputs will generate physical feedback when used.โ The video demo that we saw showed the chair tilting forward while pressing the W key, to the left with the A key, and back with the S key. Seems fun, though potentially less immersive than having the chair responding to, say, explosions.
This chair was announced alongside Project Sophia, Razerโs CES 2022 concept that envisions a gaming desk that has a PC built into it, complete with a big screen attached to it. Razer didnโt share a price for the Enki Pro HyperSense as a spokesperson told The Verge that itโs technically still a concept product, but compared to Project Sophia, it sure seems a lot more real.
Razer isnโt the only gaming computer with skin in the vibrating chair game, though. Cooler Master teased a D-Box collaboration a few months back, but itโs yet to do a full reveal as Razer has at CES 2022.