I Felt Like a King in Acer's $10,000 Thronos Battlestation

I finally got out of the chair and let my boss take a spin.

Acer first revealed its Thronos battlestation at IFA last year, but here at CES 2019, I finally got to try it. And I felt like a king.

I should have -- this battlestation, which will include a Predator Orion 9000 desktop as well as a keyboard, mouse, headset and three 27-inch monitors, will cost over $10,000. But there's no release date just yet. Oh, and there's not one but two cupholders!

The Thronos opens and closes with hydraulics controlled by a few buttons on the left arm rest. There's also a zero gravity mode that reclines the device to an almost lie-back fashion, though you really need to keep your hands on the mouse and keyboard, as there aren't any magnets holding them down.

Additionally, there's a haptic feedback remote for the chair. In my demo, it basically just gave me a really nice massage, but in theory games may work with this in the future (and hey, I'll take a gaming massage chair!).

The big issue, besides that I can't afford it, is that this thing wouldn't fit in my house. I imagine many others will sympathize with it. But I could totally see an arcade filled with these.

If you built your own rig, know that the Predator Orion attached to it isn't mandatory. Acer reps suggested they could sell a version without the PC, and that might bring the price down. But only slightly. It's a massive gaming chair with hydraulics, after all.

Andrew E. Freedman

Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming. He also keeps up with the latest news. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex, among others. Follow him on Threads @FreedmanAE and Mastodon @FreedmanAE.mastodon.social.

  • WildCard999
    Two cup holders and the tower right below... I hope the tower is movable or that is just a horrible design.
    Reply
  • WildCard999
    Found the cheaper version!

    Reply
  • stauffer.beauregard
    Just buy it.
    Reply
  • rabbit4me1
    Does it make toast? Should have plumbing for that price that eay you can go literally and play!!!
    Reply
  • mepaganporleer
    Needs a built in potty for those long gaming sessions where you just can't take a break.
    Reply
  • WildCard999
    21651959 said:
    Needs a built in potty for those long gaming sessions where you just can't take a break.

    First thing I thought of when I saw this was the WoW episode of South Park.
    Reply
  • PapaCrazy
    That's a good place for a PC, right underneath a swaying cupholder.
    Reply
  • shpankey
    wow that's actually really cheap
    Reply
  • stdragon
    What is the Matrix
    Reply
  • privat
    oh wow... NOT. Google MWELab Emperor or Imperator Gaming Chair... essentially the same, but way below 10k. And with less funky blue LEDs...
    Reply