BMW loves wild gaming concepts, and even if they never see the light of day, we admit we're happy just to look at them. The automaker's Designworks "innovation studio" once worked with Asus to develop the radical ROG Face Off gaming laptop concept: the Rival Rig gaming chair concept.

Or perhaps it would be better to call it a gaming throne.

The Rival Rig is exactly the kind of radical chair that performance car manufacturers could only dream of. It is described as having a "microclimate control system" and "adaptive seating" that is activated by an AI-controlled mesh of sensors, pneumatic air pads, and electromechanical actuators.

It is said to be tailored to the player's health and is primarily intended to provide a comfortable, performance-driven design for optimal esports play. It is intended to change and mold to the player based on the vast amount of data collected by the many onboard sensors. [Holger Hampf, president of Designworks, said in a press release (via Golem), "The Rival Rig by BMW and Rivalworks pushes the limits of human capability more than any previous project. We wanted to achieve a gaming rig design that would take both the technology and aesthetics of the field to the next level." Our goal was to create the most comfortable seating, hand posture, and head movement situations that would allow gamers to fully immerse themselves and experience a sense of weightlessness. Working on a project like this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a designer.

When it is not, it is also an open source design that welcomes third-party hardware and software.

As for the physical design, it looks suitably space-age to blend in with regular gaming hardware; according to Hampf, the chair is influenced by spaceships and Formula 1 cars, but it's not like Lando Norris' McLaren MCL35M with so much I don't recall it having RGB lighting.

The large lighting strip on the back of the chair should at least suit gamers' tastes. Also, the lighting is reactive and reflects what is happening during the game.

Hampf states, "The main design choices we made for this rig were influenced by the aesthetics found in games in general. I don't know what game these people are playing (it's certainly not Stardew Valley), but "generic" may be a slight generalization.

In any case, it is a mix of practicality, ergonomics, and fancy "just because you can" design. It is unlikely that this chair will ever see the light of day, but any little time between concept and commercialization would be time well spent.

At the very least, it's fun to look at and to dream about what might be possible. Imagine an AI whose main job is to prevent me from being depressed all day long.