Game Player! – Luxury Gaming
High-performance Luxury gaming systems and realistic flight, racing and golfing simulators are another huge part of the modern luxury AV world.
The realm of video games and their associated culture has been around for some considerable time. Arguably the very first video game was actually invented in 1958 by physicist William Higinbotham who created a very simple ‘tennis game’, akin to the classic 1970s game Pong to entertain visitors to the Brookhaven National Laboratory where he worked.
Later, Pong found its way into millions of homes as the arcade culture of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s boomed. Electronics manufacturers sort to provide a similar experience in the home with an ever more sophisticated family of games consoles such as Nintendo, Sega and Sony fought for control of the market.
As in-home gaming developed the luxury AV world looked to high-performance simulation technology to bring even more immersive experiences to gamers so these days enthusiasts can enjoy an extremely high-level of performance in their chosen field of play.
The sophistication of today’s games, made for playback on high-performance games consoles or gaming PCs, give luxury AV installers another opportunity to surround their customers in immersive environments that are rich with trigger fast game play, eye popping imaging and incredible music and sound-effects.
High-performance gaming consoles such as the Xbox Series X are compatible with Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision meaning the huge budgets poured into many of the world’s most popular titles do not go to waste as gamers experience performance in a different galaxy to William Higinbotham’s vision of a ‘simple tennis game’.
It is also worth reflecting on how deeply ingrained gaming culture is with many different age groups and demographics. If your thoughts turn to unsociable teenagers in their bedrooms as the most common type of gamers, then think again, gaming titles sell in huge numbers across all age groups. A kid growing up on arcade culture in the 1970s is now in their 50s with money to spend on either rekindling their love of game play or continuing a lifelong obsession.
The Next Level Boss
These days of course we can go even further with luxury gaming and add a whole new level of in-home experiences as technology from the world of sporting and industrial simulation has been adapted to be placed into the home.
Equipment that was used to train professionals can now provide in-home experiences that match the very best available anywhere. Want to drive your favourite car around Silverstone? no problem, want to play a round at Carnoustie on a windy day? see you on the first tee! These days a happy marriage between fast, efficient and highly accurate software has merged with high-performance in-house friendly hardware to produce whatever each customer requires.
Luxury gaming systems manifest themselves in a myriad of ways. We are called on to do everything from a fairly straight-forward integration of a games console into a home cinema room so the whole family can enjoy a hugely immersive experience either playing against each other or on-line or a completely dedicated room populated solely by a high-performing simulator allowing the user to live out their most adventurous dreams.
These spaces also provide the opportunity for the design community to stretch their muscles and provide some really imaginative and playful schemes that reflect the spirited and adventurous nature of what occurs in these spaces.
So, when it comes to filling our customer’s most ambitious requests, it is all in the game for Prestige Audio.