Roto VR has officially revealed the Roto VR Explorer, a VR gaming chair that’s being made in partnership withMeta, the company behind the popular wireless Quest headsets. The Meta Quest headsets are perhaps the biggestvirtual realitysuccess stories to date, with each new wireless headset proving to be popular in the VR community. The latest Quest headset, Meta Quest 3, marks yet another major improvement, offering a more comfortable design, higher performance and resolution, and mixed reality features.
Its improvements over the previous Quest headsets ensure thatMeta Quest 3 will help VR gamers get more immersed than ever before. However, there are those out there who may want to take their VR immersion a step beyond what can be accomplished by a VR headset alone. Oftentimes these immersive accessories are focused on standing playstyles, as is the case with VR treadmills, but Roto VR’s latest creation is all about enhancing the seated VR experience.
Game Rant can exclusively reveal theRoto VR Explorer gaming chair, made by Roto VR in partnership with Meta. The chair’s Look & Turn technology allows it to rotate as players turn their head, so players get a full, 360 degree VR experience without having to adjust their viewpoint with the controller stick. Taking its immersion a step further, the chair also features a rumble pack that matches the action on-screen. Hardcore VR enthusiasts that want to take their seated games to the next level canpre-order the Roto VR Explorer right nowfor $799 USD/£799 UK. A specific release date hasn’t been announced, but the Roto VR Explorer is expected to ship this October.
Roto VR Explorer’s rumble functionality can also work when console or PC gaming and watching TV.
Roto VR Explorer Price and Release Month
I was able to test a prototype of the Roto VR Explorer for a few days using a Quest 2 headset. The chair comes with a head-tracker device that easily attached to the top strap of my Quest 2 and accurately tracked my head movements. I tested a variety of seated experiences with the Roto VR Explorer, including theAttack on TitanVR gameand the viking drumming gameRagnarock. Head-tracking and rumble worked as expected. The chair responds quickly to the player turning their head left or right, spinning with the movement to match where they’re looking in the game world. The rumble shakes the chair when performing actions like slinging into a titan with ODM gear in theAttack on Titangame, for example. These things together result in a much more physical VR experience than one gets from sitting in a normal chair.
The chair itself is surprisingly comfortable. For one session, I started with a fully-charged Quest 2 headset and was able to play until the battery died with no discomfort at all, which is huge for someone like me that suffers from sciatic nerve pain. The seat is built with high-quality material and VR fans should have no problem playing for longer sessions.
At $799, the Roto VR Explorer gaming chair is a premium product for the most diehard VR gamers. The casual crowd thatplays VR gameshere and there or prefers standing experiences don’t need it, but those that prefer playing while seated may want to consider making the investment. Roto VR has teased a future racing game peripheral for the VR Explorer gaming chair that will come with a steering wheel and pedals, so it may one day become a must-have for those wanting to have the most immersive virtual reality racing game experience possible.
Meta Quest 3
The Meta Quest 3 is the latest and greatest mixed-reality headset that brings a host of improvements compared to the previous generation. The Quest 3 has higher resolution displays per eye with support for 90Hz and 120Hz refresh rates.It uses a more powerful 2nd generation Snapdragon XR2 processor that is capable of running games like Asgard’s Wrath 2 natively. It comes with a full-color passthrough, improved controllers, and a slimmer form factor.
