The Japanese amusement industry is all set to host its annual gathering from Feb. 10 to 12 near the town of Chiba this year. Japan Amusement Expo (JAEPO) allows for professionals and the public to coalesce and test out the latest in arcade equipment, attractions and other amusement industry mainstays.
Koei Tecmo Wave, the developer behind the popular Dynasty Warrior consumer game franchise, is set to unveil a new addition to the VR market that the street and FEC crowds in our country should keep an eye on. The VR Sense is a pay-per-use enclosed cabinet that allows a player to don a VR headset and play games.
But that’s not all. The machine incorporates a “multifunction 3D seat” and immersive technology that emulates motion, heat, cold, mist, wind and more. The cabinet is designed to stimulate every sense of the player (minus taste, thankfully) and can even generate smells to match the player’s current virtual environment.
The machine is designed with arcades in mind and will surely be a novel attraction in Japan, whether we’ll see anything like it on this side of the ocean is yet to be known. VR Sense will be debuted with three playable games: GI Jockey Sense, where players race horses; Horror Sense, a zombie game that adds the frightening sensation of bugs crawling across the players skin and critters running across the floor; and Dynasty Warrior, the VR adaptation of the company’s longtime medieval battle franchise.
Whether a player is smelling fresh-cut grass while galloping along a race track, jumping in horror as a virtual bug skitters across their skin or losing themselves in the literal heat of battle while playing VR Sense, one thing is for sure: you’re not going to see one of these in the home anytime soon. The cabinet is scheduled to release this summer, pricing and other details have yet to be announced. For more on VR Sense, click here. For more info on JAEPO, click here.