Day: February 15, 2022

That’s not a massage table! You are looking at the Lying Face Down Sleep Cushion Z. Pointed out by Gizmodo Japan and PC Watch, it was specifically created for you to place your head between the two cushions and play video games, look at your phone or tablet, and even read books.

This is the latest entry in Japan’s quest to help people be more lazy when gaming.

Created by peripheral company Thanko, it was even designed so that you can wear glasses comfortably while place your head between the two cushions.

Gaming cushions, such as this one released in Japan in 2020, are already a thing. What makes this different is that it’s not a simple cushion, but rather, more of a head rest. In comparison, using a cushion looks like more work. It’s harder.

This product is for when you don’t even feel like holding up your head and for when lying on your back, holding your gaming handheld over your face seems so tiring. Thanko is known for making silly peripherals, and while this looks goofy, it might actually be useful.

On Japanese bulletin board 5ch, commenters did have things to say about the Lying Face Down Sleep Cushion Z:

“If you were playing for a long time, this might be good. Since you can easily change how you play the Switch while lying down, if anything, I think it’s aimed more at the Steam Deck.”

“I think facing upwards is better.”

“It seems handy, but the way it looks is so messed up.”

“I’d imagine this makes your head hurt.”

“Lying down and gaming is exhausting.”

“If you have this, [using] the Steam Deck will be fine.”

“I bet if used it for a long time, your arm would go numb.”

“I’ve always thought beanbag chairs were good.”

“How far are they gonna take it?”

The Lying Face Down Sleep Cushion Z is priced at 6,980 yen ($60) and went on sale this week in Japan.

The cheapest version of Valve’s Steam Deck comes with just 64GB of internal storage, but that might not be as much of an issue as it sounds, with early tests suggesting games will run surprisingly fast off a micro SD card. YouTubers who have their hands on the devices early have started testing the Steam Deck’s load times, with some games running only slightly slower, or in some cases at the same speed as off the SSD, PC Gamer reports.

The speed testing comes courtesy of tech YouTubers Linus Tech Tips and The Phawx, both of whom have been able to put the Steam Deck through its paces ahead of the handheld device’s launch on February 25. The results, when it comes to loading games off an external micro SD card, are promising, especially during a time when a lot of games come with huge install sizes.

While the number of games available for testing at this point are limited–and likely the best optimised for the system at launch–The Phawx found that load times on games like Dead Cells and Street Fighter V were almost exactly the same between SSD and micro SD, with the longest delay around 2 seconds long. Other games like Portal 2 and Ghostrunner took a longer time to load on the micro SD, with the longest delay coming in at around 17 seconds.

Both YouTubers concluded that players had very little to lose from loading their Steam Deck games directly from a micro SD card, which is good news with the Steam Deck’s internal storage maxing out at 512GB for the most expensive model. Even the entry-level 64GB model will make a great gaming machine with a 1TB micro SD slotted in.

The Steam Deck’s portable hardware does have some drawbacks, with other tech tests showing that players will have to be more mindful of their game settings to get the most out of the device’s battery life.

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