Gaming chairs are big business these days, evidenced by the fact that you can’t watch a Twitch stream without seeing one. They’re a sign that you take your hobby very seriously. But they’re also not the thing a lot of people are sitting on when they’re playing video games. That, friends, is a couch. And that got me wondering: does a gaming couch exist in this world? Something tailor-made for kicking back and playing Destiny 2 for long stretches?
I’ll be honest with you: this is a product I didn’t know I wanted until the words appeared before me. Now I’m going on a search to find the right one and you’re coming with me.
What do I imagine when I hear “gaming couch?”
Gaming chairs, quite frankly, don’t have the kind of utility I’d expect. Mostly they go for aesthetics: they look like the chairs you’d find in a race car.
My perfect gaming chair would be an enormous thing with cupholders, storage, a reclining leg rest and the type of comfort that makes you feel as though you’re being coddled by five angels all at once. I’d appreciate the same from a gaming couch.
Here’s the thing, though: you can stuff a gaming chair into some small room where people can’t see it. You can keep your dirty little hobby a secret unless someone wanders in there while you’re not paying attention.
A couch is a bit harder to hide. It would likely have to be in your primary living space. So a gaming couch would also need to appear fairly normal, but have the ability to transform into gaming mode when required.
An Amazon search has yielded one decent result
So far, I’ve managed to find one couch that really seems to fit the bill. It’s the Ashley “Game Zone” sofa you see above, which costs a bit over $1,300 but seems to meet my requirements.
There are three seats in what I’d call “normal mode,” and nothing to indicate that anything about this sofa is particularly out of the ordinary. However, the back of the middle seat flips down to reveal a small table with cupholders as well as power outlets with USB-A ports. It has plenty of storage in the side arm rests. There’s even an LED light on it. And yes, all seats recline.
Given that it checks off all of my boxes, I feel like this is the couch that is in my future at some point. But wow is that price ever steep, especially when you consider it is faux leather and not the real deal. And this will sound silly, but I’m not entirely thrilled at having to sit on either the left or the right, putting myself off center from the TV. But perhaps I just need to get over it on that front.
All other options seem sort of disappointing
There is one characteristic that most companies believe has “gamer” written all over it: cupholders. If a futon is bare bones as anything but has a cupholder, furniture makers believe that is enough to make a gamer happy.
I’m after something more than that — honestly, something a bit more adult at this point. The Ashley option seems like the best one at the moment, but I’m going to continue to search around and see what else comes up.
It’s nice to know a gaming couch does exist, though! Even if it is very expensive. Looks like I’ll be saving up.
