IKEA and Xbox have unveiled Yxstaby, a new gaming focused collection built around nine products designed to fit the way people actually game at home today. The collection was revealed at Gamescom in Cologne on 26 August, with pieces reaching IKEA stores and IKEA.com, including in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, this autumn.
Yxstaby gaming furniture built for rooms that do more than one job
Gaming ranks among the world’s most widespread hobbies, part of daily life for more than 3 billion people. It also increasingly happens everywhere in the home, not just in a dedicated gaming room, but in the living room, kitchen, bedroom, or a shared corner squeezed in alongside everyday life. Yxstaby was designed specifically around that shift, offering versatile pieces that carve out space when it’s time to play, then blend back into the room once the console goes quiet.
Every product in the collection came out of a direct collaboration between an IKEA designer and an Xbox designer, pairing Xbox’s 25 years of gaming experience with IKEA’s more than 80 years of studying how people actually live at home. The brief centred on genuinely practical questions, like how a side table might support different play styles, offer a discreet place to stash gaming gear once a session ends, and still look at home in a living room, or wherever someone chooses to play.
Philip Dilé, product design developer at IKEA of Sweden, described how the way people game at home has changed, noting that gaming today is as much about relaxing and spending time with others as it is about the game itself, which in turn changes what people actually need from that space. He framed Xbox’s understanding of what gamers want from their setup, paired with IKEA’s ability to solve the everyday friction that comes with fitting that setup into home life, as the foundation for creating pieces people would genuinely want in their home, not furniture that only serves a single purpose.
A TV stand on wheels and a laptop stand built for temporary setups
Among the standout pieces is IKEA’s first ever TV stand built specifically for gaming, fitted with castors so it can move between rooms and a rear storage compartment designed to hold gaming equipment out of sight. For anyone without a dedicated gaming room, a laptop stand can quickly turn a dining table or any other surface into a temporary setup, with a built in compartment for organising controllers and cables, and a lid that doubles as a laptop support.
A rolling side table can be wheeled next to any seat, offering a surface for controllers so nobody has to balance one on a sofa armrest, along with hidden charging space behind sliding doors. A monitor stand lifts one or two screens to a comfortable height, with built in space for a phone, headset and controllers.
Carl Ledbetter, head of design at Xbox, pointed to everything surrounding the hardware itself as just as important to a genuinely immersive gaming experience as the hardware itself. He described the collaboration with IKEA as a chance to treat gaming as a genuine part of the home, designing around the whole room someone plays in rather than just the screen in front of them.
Xbox controller inspired stool takes the design furthest
The Xbox controller itself became one of the collection’s clearest design references, shaping the look and function of several pieces. Its D-pad inspired both a cushion and a decorative plate finished in polished stainless steel, while a mirrored display stand reflects a controller from every angle, doubling as a way to show off figurines or other collectibles.
The most distinctive piece is a stool shaped after the Xbox controller’s thumbstick, developed with Xbox designers directly from the controller’s original 3D design files, turning a shape familiar to millions of players into a playful, functional piece of furniture. Even the grip texture found a new purpose, going from stopping a thumb slipping to helping keep the person sitting on it stable.
David Wahl, designer at IKEA of Sweden, recalled queuing all night as a teenager to get his hands on the original Xbox console, giving the project a personal, nostalgic dimension for him. He described the real challenge as making the shape work as an actual stool, getting the seat curve and stability right, without losing the recognisable look of a thumbstick, adding that the finished piece even moves like one, tilting along with whoever’s sitting on it.
Yxstaby collection products
| Product | Design inspiration / function |
|---|---|
| TV stand | IKEA’s first gaming TV stand, on castors, rear gear storage |
| Laptop stand | Turns any surface into a temporary gaming setup |
| Rolling side table | Controller surface, hidden charging behind sliding doors |
| Monitor stand | Lifts 1-2 screens, storage for phone, headset, controller |
| Cushion | Inspired by the Xbox controller D-pad |
| Decorative plate | D-pad shape, polished stainless steel |
| Mirrored display stand | Reflects a controller or collectibles from every angle |
| Stool | Shaped after the Xbox controller thumbstick, tilts with the sitter |
A Scandinavian palette with a splash of Xbox green
Built to sit comfortably alongside furniture people already own, the collection leans on clean lines, soft shapes and a neutral palette of white, black and beige, echoing familiar Scandinavian simplicity. Green shows up as the accent colour, marking out pockets, compartments and functional details designed specifically for organising gaming gear.
