You’re a gamer. You need hardware. No, I’m not talking about a PC or an Xbox. I mean the real hardware that will keep you going through your gaming sesh. To that end, Xbox and IKEA brought a collab to Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, and took me for a little tour. All told, nine different products are coming to IKEA shelves, none of which will have written instructions.
IKEA is traditionally known as a brand that promotes value with somewhat spartan styling, so I was super curious what it would bring to the gaming world considering how ostentatious the gaming world normally is. Like most IKEA products, they’re fun in their own ways. So here’s what IKEA and Xbox are bringing to the gaming world.
All of these products are part of the YXSTABY collection, which is meant to be pronounced ick-stub-bee, but I pronounce ick-stabby because I’m a child. Xbox representatives pointed out that the name includes A-B-X-Y in tribute to the buttons on the Xbox controller.
Speaking of which, Xbox also made a controller in IKEA’s yellow and blue colorway, but that won’t go on sale — it was just a special edition for the show here. It was displayed inside the first product that IKEA wanted to show us. It’s a mirrored controller display box that mounts to your wall.
It’s open in the front (though the display models we saw were covered with an additional layer of plexiglass, presumably so some of those Xbox controllers didn’t…ahem…find new homes during the show.
Next was the Xbox pillow. This is exactly what you think it is. It’s a pillow in the shape of an “X” or a D-pad; both are appropriate. It is made of the standard heavy canvas material that I associate with IKEA, and of course it’s green, in keeping with the Xbox tradition.
It’s firmer than I’d normally look for in a pillow, and the canvas is more suited to padding your chair than resting your head, though I found it thicker than I would want for a chair pad — and my bad back can attest to the fact that I have tested quite a few of those in my time.
Next up is the gaming chair itself. This is not your typical office chair that is also for gamers. This is more of a sling chair that you set up in front of your TV for long gaming sessions. It has the same sling design as many loungers, with legs that swoop up in the front and continue up to support your back.
It has the same canvas material and green stitching, which I thought was a nice touch. This is a chair I would love to have set up in front of my gaming TV, if I had a room for gaming. It’s comfortable and has an adjustable headrest too.
Each side has a mesh pocket underneath the seat designed to accommodate an Xbox controller, which is a nice touch. IKEA noted that most gamers, when they get up to go to the bathroom or get something from the fridge, will typically just drop their controllers on the ground and walk away.
In theory, this gives gamers another place to put the controller lest it get kicked or attacked by a dog or something. I’m not terribly convinced that this will solve that problem, but it is, in fact, better to have it and not need it.
Next to the chair, you can set up the most expensive product IKEA had to show — the side table. This table is a sort of squared circle with a wood top. The sides are fabric and slide open to reveal an additional shelf (in Xbox green) that can hold your controllers. You can also fold that shelf over if you don’t want the controller recesses.
There are four sliding doors around the circumference of the table that you can open to get on one side from any direction. They also provide adequate ventilation if you wanted to keep your gaming console inside, and there are ports where your wires can come out. It’s a nice, classy addition to the lineup, and more adaptable to non-gamers than others in the collection.
Next up is the TV stand, which IKEA noted in the first TV stand it designed with casters. This lets you roll out your gaming rig when you want to play and, theoretically, roll it away when you’re done. The TV stand comes with a mounting bracket for the TV and two shelves.
The first is hidden behind the TV to hold your power strip and Xbox. The other is below the TV and more for other accessories. IKEA also introduced a monitor stand, but they didn’t have one on hand to show us. It holds a monitor. I would love to tell you more, but here we are.
Of course, if you don’t want a sling chair taking up all the space in your living room, you can opt for a stool instead. The best way to describe the stool is to say, take a joystick from an Xbox controller and blow it up to stool size. The detail is pretty great, with a slight depression at the top and a diamond pattern around it for grip.
The bottom of the stool is also slightly rounded so it can move with you while you game. This is one of the more fun pieces that IKEA had to show off. I can easily see a pair of these in a kids’ room or a dedicated shaming room. The stool is comfortable enough to sit on, but I sure wouldn’t want to clock a 4-hour session on it.
Speaking of design elements, IKEA also introduced a D-pad platter, which is mostly a round decorative plate. The surface has a grid pattern, evocative of the D-pad on your Xbox controller. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. It’s a shiny, reflective surface, so you can use it as a display piece or mount it on the wall.
It looks great either way, and of the collection, this might be my favorite. Its simplicity and utility are what draw me in. I’m a sucker for stuff like that, though; if I’m being perfectly honest, my house isn’t the kind of house that could display something like that.
Finally, there’s the gadget toolbox. This is designed like one of those old school toolboxes, with a handle across the top, and a box underneath to hold whatever you want. IKEA envisions this as a sort of gadget box where you can keep your laptop and maybe a wireless keyboard and mouse.
The top of the toolbox flips open to become a laptop stand, so you can pull it out, do some work, and then tuck everything neatly away. I think it’s cool in a sort of retro, space-saving kind of way, but again, it’s not the kind of thing I would have a place for in my house.
In fact, a lot of this collection reflects its European/metropolitan nature, where space is at a premium. Most of these products are designed not only to enable your gaming sessions but to get things out of the way when you’re done. I respect that, and if my home were designed to utilize things like this,
I’d be super into them.
As for pricing and availability, they’ll all be available at IKEA this coming October. The prices are as follows. The D-pad pillow is $ 14.99, the platter is $17.99, and the toolbox and display box (available in black and white) are both $29.99. The gaming monitor stand is $39.99. The thumbstick stools come in black and green for $49.99.
The Gaming chair is $99.99. The side table and the TV stand, in black or white, both come in at $149.99. Overall, nothing is too expensive, which is on brand for IKEA. I look forward to putting some of these things to the test, but again, I don’t have the kind of space I’d need for some of them. Perhaps you do.
Quirky, affordable, and fun. Perfect for dorms, basements and kids rooms. Definitely an antidote to the expensive options of gaming companies.