Ikea’s New Range Is Stealth Mode for Gamers

When you think “gaming furniture” a very specific aesthetic probably comes to mind. Sharp edges, RGB lighting, and for some reason seats that look like they belong in a race car. It’s an aesthetic that doesn’t play well with most other living spaces.

That’s something Ikea wants to change with its new line of furniture for gamers. But that raises the question: Where, exactly, does gaming fit in the modern home?

Gaming, as an activity, has rarely had living spaces designed around it. Instead, it’s latched onto other spaces in the home, adapting to what those rooms were already made for. Game consoles sit in living rooms designed to be comfortable spaces to watch TV. PC gaming setups imitate the posture of a home office, which are mainly designed to support several hours of working at a computer.

This has largely been fine, but it still occasionally leaves us reaching for increasingly complicated accessories to make sitting on the couch with a laptop more comfortable. Ikea’s new Brännboll collection is designed to bridge the gap more naturally between traditional living spaces and the highly specific posture needs gamers have.

Ikea Has Entered the Chat

At a glance, Ikea’s gaming collection doesn’t look too different from most of its lineup, with vibrant colors and minimalist designs. Upon closer inspection, however, there are some odd choices that don’t immediately make sense. Until you imagine playing games on the furniture, that is.

For example, the Gaming Lounge Chair is made of a stack of two square cushions for the seat, with a third forming the back of the seat. The seat is flanked by a pair of pipe arms, with two castors on the front. It sits almost too low on the ground, and the bottom cushions can fold out to get even lower and let your legs stretch out.

It’s an odd design, until you imagine yourself slipping into that slumping posture that comes from sliding down in your seat during an hours-long gaming session. As product design developer at Ikea Philip Dilé told WIRED, his team found that wanting lower seating was a common request among gamers. “That was really a preference that we saw with people who are gaming. They want to sit low, they want to maybe