Sony has debuted conceptual technology at CES 2025 that would essentially allow gamers to enter the worlds of PlayStation games such as The Last of Us and see, shoot, and even smell the baddies.
Footage of the Future Immersive Entertainment Concept was shared in the video below, and shows a giant cube players enter similar to the multi-person virtual reality experiences currently available. This isn’t VR, however, as the cube is instead made of incredibly high definition screens that present the game world around the player.
Looking to boost the immersion further, players are also delivered “engaging audio” and even “scent and atmospherics with interactive PlayStation game content.” The players in the video also had imitation weapons and would shoot at the screens as clickers appeared, presumably getting a whiff of rotten fungus and other offenses as they did so.
The demo was made using gameplay pulled from The Last of Us but obviously adapted to work for the Future Immersive Entertainment Concept, so unfortunately for fans is not a further look into the beloved world.
Even if it was, of course, this technology is still years away and presumably incredibly expensive, so there are myriad limitations to actually getting it into the public’s hands (or getting the public into it). Sony may showcase it with other franchises in the future too, such as God of War, Horizon, and so on.
The Last of Us has otherwise been dormant since 2020 when Part 2 was released, outside of a remake of the first game and remaster of the second. Another entry may not appear for a while either, as a multiplayer take was recently scrapped and developer Naughty Dog is currently focused on a new sci-fi franchise called Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
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