I don’t know about you but playing through The Last of Us Part I or Part II did not make me wish that I could dive into the world and experience the sights, smells, and sounds of the post-apocalyptic environment myself.

However, if you did think that, then congratulations!

Sony’s Future Immersive Entertainment experience will use technology to make fans feel as though they are right next to Joel and Ellie throughout The Last of Us, even going so far as to implementing smell dispensers for maximum immersion. Yuck.

Despite being in its early stages, this futuristic experience could become the norm when it comes to next-gen gaming as the unique sensory experience will truly make players feel as though they are inside their chosen game.

Combining different technologies, the Future Immersive Entertainment experience can be enjoyed without the need for a controller or headset, but will instead require Sony’s R&D controller.

With the aim being to make you feel as though you are inside the world of The Last of Us, players will see a semi-circle full to the brim with screens and it is here that scent dispensers will be implemented to immerse you across the story.

Now, I can only imagine what it would smell like when you come face to face with a bunch of infected corpses but hey, it’s the future apparently.

Despite this futuristic technology still being in its early stages, Sony is feeling optimistic about this next level of gaming.

“What we built here is a Future Immersive Entertainment concept and we’ve partnered with Naughty Dog to give you the opportunity to enter the world of The Last of Us. It’s an underground subway system and you’re getting to explore this dark, immersive environment,” said VP of interactive technology Guy Wilday.

“We’re using Sony 360 degree audio, if you’re hearing sounds coming from behind you, coming from above you, coming from in front of you, it just gives you that deeper sense of immersion within the environment. And then we’re adding smell and atmospherics on top of that. We have some new scent dispensers that have a number of different scents within them, and we can trigger those at different parts of the experience.”

“Under-floor haptics added to that, giving you thumps and bumps as content happens,” he continued.

As you can imagine, fans are feeling hyped about this new style of gameplay and took to r/PS5 to share their thoughts.

“No matter what this ends up being, that’s some cool s**t”, user bvanbove wrote.

It’ll definitely be interesting to watch where this technology ends up being used.