The easiest way to spot the Xbox influence in IKEA’s new gaming collection is to look at the stool. It looks like somebody pulled the thumbstick off a controller, scaled it up and decided you could sit on it. It even tilts. But if your gaming room also happens to be the family living room, the piece you might appreciate most is the TV stand on wheels.
IKEA and Xbox introduced YXSTABY, their nine-piece gaming collection, at the IKEA Pasay showroom on November 4. One designer from each company worked on the collection, pairing Xbox’s knowledge of how people play with IKEA’s experience furnishing the rooms where they do it.
The launch materials put the global gaming population at an estimated three billion. In the Philippines, IKEA sees an audience that already devotes a substantial part of its week to play. At the launch, IKEA Philippines Sales Leader May Castillo explained why the company sees a place for gaming furniture in Filipino homes.
“For Filipino gamers, the collaboration is even sweeter with IKEA’s affordable pricing and insights into how people really live, especially since the Philippines ranks first globally among internet users who play video games on any device, and play an average of 11 hours per week, the highest weekly gaming time globally.”
In a shared home, the end of a gaming session sometimes has less to do with beating a boss and more to do with somebody needing the table for dinner. The YXSTABY TV stand sits on castors, so the setup can move to another room. A rolling side table keeps accessories close during play and gives them somewhere to go when the family needs the space back.
That mobility makes sense in a Filipino home where the same table sees homework, meal prep and the occasional work meeting. A player can move the lounge chair out of a shared bedroom for a late session in the dining room. When friends come over for multiplayer, the TV can roll into the living room instead.
One of the cleverer pieces does two jobs on the same patch of tabletop. The cable organizer has felt inserts to protect what’s inside, then unfolds into a laptop stand. The gaming lounge chair takes a different cue from how people play. It accommodates the forward lean when you’re concentrating and lets you recline when you settle in for a longer session.
“XBOX knows what players need from their gaming setup, and we know how to solve the small problems that come with adapting that to everyday life at home. Together, we set out to make furniture people really want in their home, not furniture they accept because it is what you need to game,” says Philip Dilé, Product Design Developer at IKEA of Sweden.
Carl Ledbetter, Head of Design for Xbox Devices, describes the brief the two teams had in common. “We share a common design ethos: we want to help people solve the challenges they face in their everyday lives.”
The D-pad makes it to the couch
“The YXSTABY collection is inspired from XBOX gaming controllers, designed around the way gamers actually play, and splashed with IKEA’s sense of fun,” says Sarah Cox, IKEA Philippines Selling Manager.
The Xbox controller’s familiar plus-shaped directional pad turns up twice, as a cushion for the couch and as the inspiration for a stainless steel platter. Collectors get a mirrored display box for a prized controller or gaming collectible. Between that and the tilting thumbstick stool, there’s plenty here for anyone who enjoys spotting the reference before reading the product tag.
At the Pasay launch, design lovers, gamers and cosplayers explored the pieces in furnished rooms. A cosplay runway took its cue from IKEA’s blue-and-yellow FRAKTA carryall before guests toured the stations. Cosplayers Prince De Guzman and Awie De Guzman played Pac-Man, while Bimby Aquino-Yap tried Xbox games with the collection. Host Hans Galeria and IKEA Philippines Sales Leader May Castillo walked guests through the lineup.
For a closer look at how much room the chair takes up or how that thumbstick feels as a seat, visit the IKEA showroom at Mall of Asia in Pasay. The collection is also available through IKEA Philippines.
