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.
