this seems like an extremely stupid idea. unlike all other senses, smell bypasses the thalamus and has direct access to the frontal brain. it is too deeply ingrained in experience and memory.
like even if whatever wack shit they use to conjure chemicals that will trigger smell receptors is 100% safe, sustainable, affordable, and effective... I am not granting anybody else the ability to play with my head directly like that.
this whole notion doesn't acknowledge the basic revulsion/anxiety anybody has when an unknown, anonymous person says "hey smell this."
IRL 'hey smell this' 90pct of the time means its gonna be BAD. I can't imagine video games smelling good, maybe its because I think of self-proclaimed gamer smell and its about what one would imagine.
I can think of precisely zero games I want to smell. Like I’ve been through my whole library and none of them would be made better by smell. With the possible exception of Disco Elysium - I would like to smell the sea air, Kim’s evening cigarette and the alcohol evaporating from ol’ Tequila Sunset’s pores. I think that would add something, but even then I’m not bothered about smelling the hanged man’s intestines.
It would be funny if it was some kind of nose plug thing and you get offered a turn and instead of a dreaded sweaty controller they pass you the booger plugs.
Smell-O-Vision did not work as intended. According to Variety, aromas were released with a distracting hissing noise and audience members in the balcony complained that the scents reached them several seconds after the action was shown on the screen. In other parts of the theater, the odors were too faint, causing audience members to sniff loudly in an attempt to catch the scent. These technical problems were mostly corrected after the first few showings, but the poor word of mouth, in conjunction with generally negative reviews of the film itself, signaled the end of Smell-O-Vision. A 2000 Time reader survey listed Smell-O-Vision in the "Top 100 Worst Ideas of All Time".