If there’s one thing I personally think the older generation of large corporate executives doesn’t understand, it’s the gaming sector of consumer electronics. With that in mind, I spent my morning exploring the latest wares from Intel, HP, Microsoft and Sony. By far the biggest trend I experienced is total immersion in gameplay. Since video games are all about escaping reality—or at least entering a different reality—it makes sense to try to completely envelop the user in lifelike graphics, audio, and aesthetic. The aesthetic, totally immersed experience goes far beyond the standard combo of console and TV. Sure, there’s the 40” HDTV and games rendered in full HD, but when you throw in vibrating controllers, scene-dependent lighting, fans to simulate movement, and mechanical gamer chairs, the experience becomes all the more real.

For the ultimate aesthetic setup, Philips’ amBX speaker system combines active peripheral lighting—imagine Ambilight for your PC—with rumble simulators and breeze fans to create the aesthetic. To experience the technology, I climbed aboard a full-scale mockup of a Formula 1 car. In the cockpit of the Intel-powered F1 simulator, I felt a real breeze as I sped around the track. For the times I was doing less speeding and a little more off-roading, a powerful subwoofer let me know I was busy tearing my beautiful car to pieces. And all the while, colors were changing in my peripheral vision to match the overall scene. The experience was exhilaratingly realistic; so much so that I demanded a second try.