Sony Unveils Smell-Enhanced Gaming Concept at CES 2025

At CES 2025, Sony unveiled the Future Immersive Entertainment Concept, a system that integrates scent technology into gaming, offering PlayStation players a new sensory dimension and a more immersive experience.

The concept is presented as a room-sized installation with video screens covering every wall, delivering a fully immersive 360-degree visual experience. In a teaser trailer, Sony showcased the technology using scenes from The Last of Us, allowing players to not only see and hear the post-apocalyptic world but also smell it. The introduction of aroma technology aims to add a new layer to traditional gaming — if the scent of rotting corpses mixed with gunpowder and fungus is the kind of experience you’re looking for.

“One of the pillars of Sony’s creative entertainment vision is the idea of narrative everywhere, where stories from Sony are transformed across new and exciting mediums,” explained the promotional video. The system also integrates Sony’s Crystal LED panels, advanced audio, haptics, and atmospheric effects in an attempt to make gameplay a multi-sensory experience.

Alongside scents, the system adds interactive tools, such as a torchlight that highlights specific areas within the game environment. While Sony has yet to reveal commercial release plans, the company has a history of exploring immersive technologies. Its 2023 patent for scent-based gaming, which expands on its DualSense controller’s tactile and audio features, hints at such development.

Although scent integration is not entirely unprecedented, Microsoft experimented with a scent-emitting controller for the Xbox One in 2013, and more recently, the company released pizza-scented controllers in 2023 to celebrate the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film in four variations, each representing one of the Turtle brothers: Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo.

While the Future Immersive Entertainment Concept is an ambitious proof-of-concept, the room-sized setup shown at CES suggests that the technology is designed for high-end experiences, similar to 4D attractions in theme parks or cinemas.

Sony’s and Microsoft’s ventures into scent-enhanced gaming are not the only attempts to integrate smell into entertainment. The concept of “Smell-O-Vision” debuted and made its only appearance in the 1960 film Scent of Mystery. The gaming industry took up the baton later and presented products like the iSmell device by DigiScents Inc. of the early 2000s and niche VR accessories aimed at scent immersion. However, these technologies often struggled to gain traction due to limited appeal and high costs. The iSmell was about $200 for the device plus the constant need for the purchase of renewable cartridges, while “Smell-O-Vision” from the  1960s would now cost up to $8.3m adjusted for inflation.