The gaming chair market is chaotic. Take a look around, and you’ll see desk chairs marketed directly at gamers for as low as $50 and up to more than $2,000. Even so, I’ve remained a skeptic who uses a standard office chair for both work and play. That could finally be changing, though. Razer recently unveiled its new concept gaming chair, Project Madison at CES 2026. After getting to take it for a test drive, I am considering making the jump when it gets released. Or if it gets released — there is currently no release date or price point announced for Project Madison. It doesn’t even have an official name yet.
What is Razer’s Project Madison?
Razer has created a chair filled with bells and whistles, and, if I’m being honest, I still can’t figure out how it’s done. Built into the chair are speakers, the ever-present reactive RGB lighting that gamers seem to love, and also haptics. It’s built to work in conjunction with Razer’s other gaming products, including the RGB-controlling Razer Chroma series and Sensa HD for haptics control.
According to Razer, the chair will be wirelessly connected to your PC, meaning even though it’ll have lights, speakers, and haptics built in, chances are you won’t be chained to an outlet. It’ll also have actual chair features and not just a bunch of tech, too. Project Madison includes a 152-degree recline, 4D armrests, and lumbar support among its features. And if you’re as confused about 4D armrests as I was, it means the armrests can be adjusted to move up and down, in and out, side to side, and forward and backward.
What does it feel like?
As the Razer representative listed off the various features of the chair, it all felt like overkill. I’m a pretty simple gamer who wears a headset 95% of the time, and I don’t have a single bulb of RGB lighting in my house. I was also expecting a rock-hard seat, given that the chair was full of haptics, lighting, and speakers. Even when I pressed my hand against the back, it didn’t feel like there was much cushion.
That changed when I sat down. It’s not the most plush seat I’ve ever used, but it was far more comfortable than I expected with the right amount of sinking into the seat that left me ready to game. During the demonstration, I was shown the two ways Project Madison handles haptics, via Razer’s Sena HD technology. The first from the long list of games partners with Razer to supply programmed haptics for Sensa HD.
For the demo, that meant playing a round of Marvel Rivals. I was shocked by how much I enjoyed the haptic feedback. It wasn’t a light nudging, but the sort of impact that let you know something serious was happening without becoming an annoyance. In a shooter like Rivals, you would theoretically never stop feeling the feedback due to the sheer number of bullets flying. But NetEase worked with Razer on a solution that makes the game so much more enjoyable. You only receive haptic feedback when firing your weapon, not when getting hit by another player. We were told this was specifically done to keep the haptics from feeling too busy, and the feedback was an excellent bit of immersion that I wouldn’t mind having for more games.
The other component of haptic feedback comes by converting the audio to haptics, using Razer’s Sensa HD. Studios that aren’t partnered with Razer will see their games’ haptic feedback implemented that way. Hopefully, that also means audio-to-haptics will handle any sound coming from your computer. You haven’t watched a YouTube commentary video until every time the host pops their P’s, you get a little kick in the seat.
The speakers are another high point. As noted above, I’m a big proponent of wearing headphones while gaming or working, so speakers built into the chair didn’t spark much interest. However, they sound stunning. The THX wireless speakers used in the seat deliver excellent audio quality right next to your ears and can be paired with other speakers for 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound. Truthfully, though, I don’t think I’d need additional speakers if I were sitting in that chair. The audio was delivered beautifully, and I didn’t have the pressure of massive cans on my ears.
The only thing I didn’t care for was the integrated RGB lighting. I’m sure it looks amazing if you’re streaming online and have it synced up to the rest of your Razer Chroma products. For the rest of us who play games off-camera, the lights don’t offer much, as you don’t really notice them when seated — and if you do, it’s bound to be a distraction during a high-intensity battle.
As I write this, I’m sitting in a desk chair that could more appropriately be described as a one-person desk couch. Given I work remotely and play a fair amount of games, I spend a lot of time at my desktop computer and have always striven to be as comfortable as possible. It’s been easy to look past all the gaming chairs I’ve gotten marketing emails for or watched friends purchase and love. They have all, in my experience, sacrificed comfort for cool. I’m a 44-year-old who plays Fortnite, Minecraft, and wrestling games. I’m not even a little bit cool. Project Madison is cool, though. And it’s cool enough that if it lives up to the hype — and my demonstration — I’ll seriously consider retiring my desk couch for my first gaming chair. I will not, however, be using any of the RGB lighting.
