For a gamer searching for the ultimate immersive experience (and relief from their back pain!), this space-age chair might just be the final frontier.
A seemingly unlikely collaboration between mattress company Tempur and Xbox, this one-of-a-kind ‘Dream Chair’ was built to mark the release of Starfield, a role-playing game set in the distant future.
With a design inspired by Starfield’s retro ‘NASA-punk’ aesthetic, the enormous gaming chair might not fit in your living room, but it would feel right at home in the cockpit of a spaceship.
However, it’s not just the style that’s space-age – it’s also been built with a material originally used to cushion the impact of lift-off aboard space shuttles.
The chair has briefly touched down in Westfield Stratford this week, where MailOnline was given an exclusively sneak peek to see if it lives up to its stellar reputation.
The impressive ‘Tempur x Starfield Dream Chair’ has been made specially to mark the release of Starfield – Bethesda Game Studio’s first game in 25 years
Featuring the same kind of foam that goes into Tempur mattresses and an enormous wrap-around screen, this might just be the ideal gaming set-up
The attention to detail was seriously impressive, with every surface of the dashboard loaded with switches, dials, and decals that made for an extremely immersive experience
What is Starfield?
Starfield is the first game published by Bethesda Game Studios – the team behind Skyrim – in 25 years.
It is a role-playing game set in the distant future.
Players can explore over 1,000 planets in a spaceship they design themselves.
The game features detailed exploration, combat, foraging, and leveling mechanics.
Its developers say the vast game could take between 30-60 hours to complete.
In Starfield, players will take control of their very own spaceship
Upon first impression, the design of this gaming chair is really impressive.
In fact, it’s really much more than a simple chair.
Designed by Nichols Alexander – a team whose other notable creations include a 23 ft (seven meters) long Jeff Goldblum sculpture – the entire arrangement is packed full of minute details.
The chair sits in front of a vast console, painted in the minimalist colour scheme of the video game.
From ‘etched warnings’ over the chair’s back to the dozens of switches and dials (which I was reminded would not do anything no matter how much they were flipped), it was obvious that real passion and attention had gone into its creation.
The chair itself smoothly retracted from the console and absurdly large wrap-around screen, before rotating outwards; a movement intended to make access easier for less mobile users.
Of course, as a lover of both video games and sitting, I couldn’t wait to try it out for myself.
And despite the blocky, angular design, the chair was almost decadently comfortable.
The material felt firm at first but soon appeared to soften while still staying quite supportive.
The two joysticks on the armrests controlled the chair’s movements, with one moving the seat backwards and forwards and the other reclining or sitting up.
Even though there was no game to play on the massive screen, just a looping clip of gameplay footage, I still managed to have quite a lot of fun scooting back and forth, with the chair’s surprisingly fast motors whirring away beneath my feet.
The pads of Tempur foam that made up the chair’s construction conformed nicely to my back and – while it wasn’t exactly a shuttle landing – the foam absorbed all the impact of any sudden reclining I attempted.
MailOnline reporter Wiliam Hunter feeling the rush of sitting in such a comfortable chair
While the joysticks didn’t control any game, they did recline the seat and move it backwards and forwards, making the chair fully adjustable for any user
The view from the cockpit of the Dream Chair really does make you feel like you’re the pilot of your very own starship
While it might seem odd for a company selling mattresses, Tempur has a fairly good claim to produce an accurate space chair.
In the early days of space travel, NASA had a serious problem. The G-force generated by lift-off was simply too much for astronauts to bear while sitting in regular chairs.
In the early 1970s, scientists developed a completely new type of material made up of billions of ‘high density, viscoelastic memory cells’ which apparently ‘exist between a solid and a liquid state’.
The material had a structure full of open cells which slowly react to body heat and pressure, conforming to the astronaut’s body by softening where needed and staying firm elsewhere.
In the 1980s, NASA published the formula for the technology, which was taken up by the Danish Dan Foam ApS, and created the same Tempur foam that the gaming chair is made of.
The company was even recognized by NASA for its achievements in popularizing space-tech at a joint press conference in 1998 where Tempur’s founder presented NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin with their one-millionth pillow.
So, could I tell that I was being cushioned by 50 years of space-tech? Or that the seat beneath me existed ‘between a solid and a liquid’?
That might be going a bit far, but I have to say that this was probably the comfiest gaming chair I have ever sat in.
With Starfield expected to take between 30 and 60 hours to complete, it would be extremely welcome to any gamer looking to get lost in space from the comfort of their own home.
It might not have physically taken me to space, or even out of the shopping centre, but it is probably the closest you can get to weightlessness without leaving the M25.
Unfortunately, if you were thinking of upgrading your own gaming setup, there is only one of these in the world and it is not for sale.
If you do want to try it for yourself it will be the TEMPUR Westfield Stratford store in London from 9-29 October, after which the chair will go to the winner of a charity raffle.
The futuristic chair has been designed to match the retro NASA-punk aesthetic of Starfield
Unfortunately this chair is not for sale, but it will go to the winner of a charity raffle held by Tempur later this year
