This is it, the worst gaming chair I've ever seen
Opinion: why would you do this, Gigabyte?
When it comes to gaming chairs, they're pretty much all terrible at actually being chairs. There's so much marketing around them, but they all end up screwing up your back and won't be as comfortable as a regular office chair.
But sometimes a manufacturer shows off something so bizarre that I just don't know what to make of it. A couple of years ago this meant a bunch of gaming chairs that were basically giant cockpits, with built-in arms to hold a gaming monitor and compartments for your PC. These monsters would cost you thousands of dollars, and still end with you seeing a chiropractor in a couple of years.
But Gigabyte just showed off one of the most bizarre gaming chairs we've seen yet – and it's inflatable. Now, to be clear, this chair isn't on sale yet or anything, the only gaming chairs on Gigabyte's website are your standard fare that's supposed to look like a racecar seat for some reason, but it's totally possible that Gigabyte will sell this thing eventually and if it does, I don't know if I can stop my morbid curiosity to sit in this thing.
Game like a pro, sit like a boss! #AORUS #GIGABYTE #TeamUpFightOn pic.twitter.com/SGhNcxH8HSOctober 7, 2021
Who thought this was a good idea?
To put things a bit in perspective, Gigabyte is most well known for making PC components like motherboards, graphics cards, and other such things. So, its fanbase – at least to the extent of people that would buy a Gigabyte-branded chair – are probably playing the best PC games, rather than chilling in their living rooms playing on PS5.
But for the life of me, I cannot imagine anyone setting up this weird chair-beach-ball-hybrid-thing next to their desk, and if they did, could you imagine how uncomfortable it would be? Gigabyte didn't share anything beyond a tweet with some images, so we can't see the dimensions, but this certainly doesn't look tall enough to be of much use at a desk, which leaves the living room.
Even there, though, this chair is a recipe for disaster. Can you imagine sitting down to play, I don't know, Call of Duty or whatever and you drop some Doritos and make this chair spring a leak? I don't know how much of an issue that would actually be, but Twitter user @zinitti puts it best.
Your time is probably better spent focusing on making products that doesn't blow up.October 7, 2021
I can just imagine how fast this chair would deflate after a little while, too, which means even if you didn't pop it with an errant chip, you would have to occasionally reinflate it if you plan on regularly sitting on it.
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One of the only situations that I think this thing would be genuinely useful in, is if you had guests and didn't have enough seats. But even then, the chair looks like it does, so probably wouldn't be something you pull out in front of guests. I just don't know who this is for.
It probably won't actually be a thing you can buy
I reached out to Gigabyte to ask it to tell me everything about this chair, and I'll update this article if I hear anything back, but let's be real: this thing probably isn't, well, real. Even if it is, I doubt it'll be a product you can readily buy.
And I'm going to be honest, the second I see this thing at an event or something, I will absolutely sit in it. Because at the very least, the top of the chair looks like it's pretty soft, which might be nice, at least for a little while.
But that doesn't stop my mind from going wild trying to imagine how much Gigabyte would charge for this thing. I seriously doubt it would cost as much as its other gaming chairs, which start at $388 on Newegg in the US – with red LEDs, because of course – but I could totally see Gigabyte charging upwards of $100 just for the novelty alone.
That price absolutely wouldn't be worth it, unless you're really committed to the bit of having an inflatable gamer chair. And, honestly I don't know if I could blame you, because I might do the same.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN. Previously, she was TechRadar's US computing editor. She is fat, queer and extremely online. Computers are the devil, but she just happens to be a satanist. If you need to know anything about computing components, PC gaming or the best laptop on the market, don't be afraid to drop her a line on Twitter or through email.