IKEA and Xbox Unveil YXSTABY: Gaming Furniture You'd Actually Want in Your Living Room
IKEA and Xbox have pulled the curtain back on YXSTABY, a nine-piece gaming furniture collection unveiled at the Gamescom fair in Cologne on 26 August 2026. It is Xbox's first foray into furniture, and the pieces borrow directly from the controller's design language — a thumbstick turned into a stool, a D-pad reimagined as cushions and a stainless-steel platter.
The standout is a stool modelled on the Xbox controller's thumbstick, with a curved base that tilts in all directions. Xbox design director Elliot Hsu told Dezeen that the team went back to the controller's original design files to refine the stool's proportions, texture, seating curve and stability. A shiny stainless-steel platter and a green cushion, both shaped to echo the controller's cross-shaped D-pad, round out the controller-inspired pieces.
Each item in the collection was designed by a pair — one IKEA designer, one Xbox designer — working together from the start. IKEA product design developer Philip Dilé said the goal was to make furniture people actually want in their home, rather than furniture they accept because it is what they need to game. The IKEA France press kit, published in August 2026, puts it simply: the collection was imagined so everyone can fully live their gaming passion without compromising on their interior decor.
The range also includes IKEA's first TV stand since a failed attempt in 2012. IKEA designer Lukas Bazle said the stand's square frame over a tubular metal base was chosen to keep it from looking too much like office furniture. Hypebeast, reporting on 24 August 2026, described the collection as bringing portable, tool-free desks and stackable stools aimed at city renters and university students — though Dezeen's 26 August coverage lists the final count at nine pieces rather than the twelve Hypebeast initially reported.
For context, this is not IKEA's first pass at gaming gear. The Swedish retailer previously launched a "Game On" range of desks, chairs and accessories, and collaborated with ASUS ROG, the gaming hardware brand, on a separate line of furniture and accessories for gaming setups. YXSTABY takes the concept further by folding Xbox's controller design DNA directly into everyday objects — a platter you could serve drinks on, a stool a guest might sit on, with no awareness that they reference a gamepad.
IKEA France, which announced the collection through its newsroom, operates 36 stores across the country and recorded a turnover of €3.7 billion in its 2024 fiscal year. The company participates in the Ingka Group's People and Planet Positive sustainability strategy, which targets a strong reduction in the climate impact of its activities by 2030.
Pricing and global availability dates have not yet been confirmed. What is clear is the pitch: gaming furniture that does not look like gaming furniture, designed by the people who make the controllers and the flat-packs alike.
