Picture a stool modelled on an Xbox thumbstick. Green and black, about as big as a beanbag — and it tips when you put your weight on it.
No, this isn’t a gag. The tilt was designed in on purpose, mirroring the way a thumbstick moves, and IKEA worked from the original 3D design files for the Xbox controller to get it right. The idea is to keep players “comfortably engaged during intense sessions.”
That stool is one of nine items in an official Xbox furniture collection unveiled by IKEA, developed jointly by teams at the two companies. The name is YXSTABY. Try saying that out loud.
The stuff you’d actually put in a living room
The bulk of the lineup is ordinary furniture with a gaming brief: boxes for displaying controllers, TV stands mounted on castors, and a side table meant to gather up all the accessories currently scattered across your floor.
From there things get odder — and more fun. The standout is a green D-pad cushion. There’s also a D-pad platter, riffing on the concave metal D-pad found on Xbox Elite controllers, which functions as either a serving dish or a talking point, depending on the size of your guest list.
Why IKEA thinks this sells
The reasoning here is about demographics rather than décor. IKEA’s press release said YXSTABY reflected “an era where gaming furniture is moving out of teen bedrooms and man caves and into the mainstream living room.”
Put plainly: today’s couch buyers were raised holding controllers, and none of them want an RGB throne parked beside the nice rug.
Carl Ledbetter, Xbox Head of Design, presented the range as a natural continuation of the hardware.
“At Xbox, we think a lot about what helps players feel immersed in a game,” Ledbetter said. “The hardware is an important part of that, but so is the world you create around it. Working with IKEA gave us the opportunity to design for the entire gaming experience at home, from the screen to the space around it.”
When you can buy it
U.K. shoppers get the collection in October, through IKEA stores and online alike. Ahead of that wider rollout, it’s currently on display at the Xbox booth at Gamescom, a couple of months early.
So there’s time to measure up your own living room. Place an order in October and you might be perched on a thumbstick stool by the time GTA 6 lands, or sprawled across a D-pad cushion while you wait for Fable.