23 August 2023 , 17:00
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Xbox has teamed up with mattress-maker Tempur to create a behemoth of a gaming cockpit that's so big you might need to turf out your furniture to make space for it.
Branded as a Starfield gaming chair, this one-of-a-kind creation is being unveiled at Gamescom along with never-before-seen footage made explicitly for the event to be experienced in the cockpit. Because that's what it is. This thing is huge, and as much as I love the 'NASA punk’ aesthetic it mirrors from the game, you're not going to be swapping out your tattered old gaming chair for this one. You'll be lucky to get it through your front door.
The chair has been designed by the team at Nicholas Alexander Creative Construction, who were also responsible for the giant inflatable Hitman 2 duck at Paris Games Week 2018 – and the infamous 25ft shirtless Jeff Goldblum statue that popped up at London's Tower Bridge for Jurassic Park's 25th anniversary.
You can win this Starfield gaming chair in a charity raffle at the end of the year once it's done the rounds of industry events (Tempur)You won't be able to buy it – although if it goes the way of the Xbox Series X mini fridge, maybe we could get a pared-back design down the road if we shout loud enough. But once it's made its debut at Gamescom 2023, the Starfield gaming chair will be moved to the Saturn Xperion store in Germany, before one final public stint in the UK at the Westfield Tempur store in Stratford. At the end of the year, it'll be given away in a charity raffle. If you do enter, it's worth looking into how easy it is to clean memory foam because that thing is going to have had an inordinate amount of butt traffic.
Space slick
On the topic of butts, yours is going to be cushioned by soft, spongy Tempur memory foam. So while you won't have anything else to sit on after clearing out the rest of the furniture, at least you'll be comfortable. For those not in the know, memory foam has its origins in NASA with the material being developed in the early 70s to help cushion astronauts during lift-off.
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Tempur took that technology and ran with it, and its website boasts that it's the only mattress and pillow brand recognised by NASA and the Space Foundation. This is definitely something I look for when relaxing at a cool 1g on the surface of the Earth; and should my mattress and I get catapulted into space, I'll have that peace of mind at least. And so will you if you manage to win this Starfield gaming chair.
As well as enjoying the pressure absorbing qualities on your derrière you can adjust the chair to your preferred position using the joysticks – one on each armrest – that are reminiscent of the spaceship controls in Flight of the Navigator (if anyone is ancient enough to remember that). It's also fully accessible, swivelling to both the left and right so you can plonk right in without having to contort yourself around the corners of the design.
As much as I actually love the look of it, I don't know who's going to have the space to accommodate it. I imagine it'll get sold off to a collector somewhere down the line for an obscene amount of money, but for now, there's still the chance to enjoy it in person while the Starfield gaming chair is on tour.
In the meantime, if you're looking for more practical paraphernalia themed for the game, there's the Starfield Xbox controller and Starfield Constellation Edition which are much smaller but are a lot more expensive. And of course, don't forget that you can unlock Starfield early access if you pre-order the Constellation Edition, the Digital Premium Edition or the Premium Edition Upgrade. So you can start playing from next week on Friday, September 1 ahead of the official Starfield release date of Wednesday, September 6.