When is an office or gaming chair more than a seat? When it's an entire mechanical pod equipped with monitors, wireless charging, USB ports, and more RGB LEDs than our personal record (zero).

As of today, Cooler Master is letting people register for the waitlist of its Orb X "multi-purpose station." Waitlist registration is still steps away from preorders or even a release date for the chair Cooler Master first started teasing in 2021. However, it shows Cooler Master is still serious about releasing its workstation pod, which looks like it was plucked out of a science-fiction movie before passing through a gamer's den.

But Cooler Master isn't limiting the Orb X's potential reach to gamers alone. Its announcement today claims it designed the pod "for gamers and professionals" and that its isolating, spherical design can help people "stay productive."

The workstation does have a lot of tech that's used in many people's office setups today. There's support for a 34-inch monitor or three 27-inch ones and space for connecting a laptop or console, depending on how you prefer to work or play.

There's also a USB hub with four USB-A ports and two USB-C ports, including one with 60 W power delivery. The dedicated area for a keyboard and mouse is topped with a cloth mousepad material, plus a wireless charging area.

Cooler Master claims a surround-sound experience in the battle station, with an audio system that includes two 2-inch tweeters, a 5-inch woofer, and two 2-inch speakers.

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Oh, and there's a chair in that pod! It's a leather one that reclines and has an adjustable headrest, plus, perhaps most exciting of all, a leg rest.

Despite this being among the flashiest seating arrangements in history, Cooler Master says the Orb X is about enabling a "private environment." The Orb X, as Cooler Master describes it, has a "fully automated motorized shuttle dome, keeping users away from distractions and enabling an uninterrupted privacy mode."

But while the person in the cockpit may tune the world out, those on the outside will certainly take note of the workstation. Cooler Master claims the "sleek and futuristic appearance... can fit in any occasion, such as business, entertainment, or gaming setup." But something tells us it will stand out anywhere you put it.

Still, to help your imagination, Cooler Master has shared an image of the thing in an office—inconspicuous as can be.

And if the chair isn't unique enough for you, there's RGB to help your 74.1×74.3×82.2-inch, 757.3-pound throne attract more attention.

Making it increasingly likely this will be out of touch for most individuals, when Cooler Master first teased its productivity pod, it told Tom's Hardware it would "likely" be $12,000 to $14,000; however, there has been no update on final pricing.

With these potential prices, size, and specs, the productivity pod / gargantuan gamer may end up in the likes of malls, storefronts, arcades, and trade shows.

But that doesn't mean there won't be some Bruce Wayne-esque individuals vying for the throne for individual use. And there are already other vendors playing in this space. While similarly decked-out battle stations, like Acer's Predator Thronos and Predator Thronos Air, aren't exactly stacked on shelves, offerings like MWE Lab's Emperor chairs have been around since 2007, with prices hitting as high as $50,000 in 2013.

None of MWE Lab's current offerings have a pod encircling you for work or gameplay, but the company offers multi-monitor support connected to a reclining chair. The three-monitor ePod, for example, is $3,575, while its circular (but not spherical) Emperor XT supporting three monitors has a $5,645 MSRP.

Listing image by Cooler Master