A spinning VR gaming chair sounds like it would be an at-home vomitron. The virtual reality environment tends to make some people (like me) queasy as it is, so adding synchronized full-body rotation seems like a recipe for disaster. I was kind of prepared for the worst when I decided to try out the $800 Roto VR Explorer at CES 2025, which uses a head-tracker that attaches to the top of Meta Quest devices and other headsets to make a swivel chair turn in whatever direction you’re looking. But against all odds, I ended up having a pretty good time.
In addition to enhancing the experience of seated VR gaming, the chair is actually supposed to help with issues like motion sickness, because, according to the press materials, “the signals from your inner ear will match what your brain is expecting from the visual cues.” Still, I was a little nervous, and it didn’t help that as we approached the booth, the first thing we saw was an empty chair spinning on its own in the corner like an omen.
The Roto VR Explorer is a Made for Meta product, meaning it’s optimized for Quest, but it’ll work with standalone headsets like those in the HTC Vive family and “soon” the Apple Vision Pro. The chair itself weighs 66 pounds, so it felt really sturdy to sit in, and it has a rumble pack under the seat to bring haptic feedback to the rest of your body instead of just in your hands from the controllers. The head tracker, which looks like a flattened Poké Ball, clips onto the top strap of the headset.
After the Roto team gave me the rundown and got me set up in the chair with a Quest 3, I selected my VR experience — the 2018 interactive documentary about the universe, Spheres — and got going. It was, without a doubt, a little weird at first when I turned my head to follow the path of rippling auroras and felt my body rotate as if I were a spice jar on a lazy Susan. But for the most part, it didn’t have that disorienting feeling of the ground shifting underneath you. (It was definitely lagging a bit on the congested show floor, which did lead to some out-of-sync, jerky movements). It only took a minute or so for me to stop focusing on the fact that I was in motion and just go with it.
For something like Spheres, where you’re just sort of moseying through beautiful visuals and curiously interacting with the virtual environment, the Roto VR Explorer is actually really nice. If you’re in a faster-paced setting, like a first-person shooter, it’s only going to ramp up the tension. I tried turning my head quickly to the side back and forth a few times to see how it would work with that sort of movement, and it really goes when it’s running smoothly. The chair moves at max speed of 21 revolutions per minute, but you can reduce this with the controllers if that gets to be too much.
I fully expected to be doing a lot of deep breathing to get through the demo, but there actually never was a point that I felt nauseated. And when I got up out of it and reentered real life, I didn’t feel any more wobbly-legged and confused than I usually do after spending time behind a headset (though I’m sure using it for a few hours straight would change that). I’m mostly just relieved I didn’t throw up in front of a bunch of strangers.
There are plenty of situations in which a person might want or need to do their VR gaming sitting down, and the Roto VR Explorer chair offers a pretty fun way to bring the immersion to another level. It’s available for purchase now, with upgrade packages — including Pro Flying and Pro Racing — expected to follow in August 2025.
