McDonald’s enters the PC gaming scene: could the KFConsole have competition?

Could we have a new entry to our best gaming chair rankings? McDonald’s – of all places – has revealed a new throne for PC gamers to promote the launch of its new McCrispy burger in the UK.

In a post on the McDonald’s UK Facebook page, the fast-food giant revealed the chair, and I have to be frank: this is perhaps the ugliest gaming chair ever seen by human eyes. The race car-inspired main body is a ghastly yellow plastered with the word ‘McCrispy’ over and over, while the detachable head cushion bears the iconic golden arches of the McDonald’s logo.

Naturally, this being a comfortable gaming chair designed to celebrate the arrival of a sub-par chicken burger – which McD’s describes as ‘game-changing’, a tenuous link if I’ve ever seen one – the ‘McCrispy Ultimate Gaming Chair’ comes with a few helpful (read: stupid) features.

These include a fry holder, slots for pots of dip, a stain-proof finish to protect the material from greasy fingers, and a small hot box ‘to keep your McCrispy warm during game-play’. Yes, they hyphenated the word ‘gameplay’. I am literally begging companies to consult with some actual games industry peeps before embarking on these schemes.

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KFC made its own outlandish pitch to gamers with its  ‘I Love You, Colonel Sanders!’ comedy dating sim (Image credit: KFC, Psyop)

Analysis: More clownery than Ronald usually gets up to

This is just the latest effort from fast-food chains to appeal to the ever-growing ‘gamer market’, and I’m not lovin’ it. Gaming is a hobby of such broad scope that it encompasses all types of people, and it might sound cynical of me, but it’s not as simple a marketing avenue as many big non-gaming brands seem to think.

Some have fared better than others, mind you. Many companies try to use games as a nice easy angle for advertising – take Monster Energy plastering Wraith from Apex Legends all over cans of Monster Ultra, for example – but there does seem to be a trick to actually getting good publicity out of a gaming-related marketing campaign.

The answer: don’t take yourself too seriously, because gamers certainly don’t. KFC is inarguably the champ here: back in 2020, the fried chicken titan revealed the KFConsole, a gaming PC with a built-in chamber to keep your wings warm. This came shortly after the release of ‘I Love You, Colonel Sanders!’, a comedy dating sim starring the Colonel himself reimagined as a dreamy anime boy. It’s free on Steam, by the way.

Mercifully, the McCrispy Ultimate Gaming Chair (bleurgh) is purely a publicity stunt: only one of the chairs will be available, with a prize draw on the company’s UK Facebook page determining who gets it. The eagle-eyed folks over at TheGamer noticed that three more were produced and given to streamers as part of the promotion, so there are at least four of these monstrosities out there in the wild. The competition closes at midnight GMT on November 13.

So, where next for McDonald's? Can we expect to see a Hamburglar-themed gaming PC arrive at some point? Perhaps graphics cards with yellow ‘M’s on the fans? I certainly hope not. Stick to fries, Ronald.

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