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I want to believe in chairs. Specifically, I imagine that the ergonomic desk seat can be more than a comfy cushion for your bedraggled bum. So does Razer, as evidenced by its lingering love for shoving more and more tech into gaming chairs. Its latest concept device may be its most enticing yet, since it combines an entire immersive suite into a single device.
Razer’s Project Madison is essentially a speaker headrest combined with a series of haptic cushions into the backrest and seat. Taken together, it’s a combination of the Razer Clio from 2025 and the Razer Freyja from 2024. Clio’s 5.1 sound quality wasn’t strong enough to beat any quality gaming headset. Freyja, on the other hand, was brought low by its power cable that was prone to tangling with your gaming chairs’ rolly feet.
Once you embed both products into a chair like the Razer Iskur V2 X, you can mitigate many of those pain points and otherwise thread the cushion full of extra gamer-fueled RGB lighting. I had the chance to plop down into Project Madison during CES 2026. It felt as comfortable as its existing high-end gaming chair, or even a little bit better cushioned thanks to the company’s special Sensa haptics. The chair offers a vibration that’s far more nuanced than your regular controller’s rumble feature. Individual motors target specific parts of your body. In a racing game, it provides an extremely immersive experience. In a shooter, the pop and fizzle of gunfire will offer more sporadic sensations.
© RazerAs for the speaker, it’s more of a mixed bag. The 5.1 sound of Clio was hampered when you moved your head away from the sweet spot, just between the two large speakers. In a loud room, I couldn’t tell if Madison’s sound was much improved. It wasn’t loud enough for the bass to tingle my spine. Like Clio, the chair can work alongside other speakers to offer a fuller 7.1 surround sound effect.
Project Maidson is a concept device. Whether it becomes a reality will depend on the market for such products. Razer’s new obsession seems to be AI wearables and desktop technology. We’ll have to see. Either way, a haptics/speaker gaming chair would be extra pricey. Clio and Freyja by themselves cost $300 and $230, respectively. An Iskur V2 X sells for a suggested $300. Would you spend close to $800 on a single gaming chair? It would depend on how important immersion is to your gaming experience.
Gizmodo is on the ground in Las Vegas all week bringing you everything you need to know about the tech unveiled at CES 2026. You can follow our CES live blog here and find all our coverage here.
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