While the term ‘gamer’ is becoming increasingly vague, which is a positive sign that everyone from small children to retirees can love video games as a perfectly normal part of life, the conventional use of the phrase is still a segment of the market relentlessly targeted by companies. IKEA is another joining in, creating a range of gaming furniture that seems to be focused on competitive PC-centric gaming, and of course streamers.
The range has previously had trial launches in a few countries, but is now set for a global roll-out in October. As suggested above it’s targeting a very specific setup – many of us may slump in a cosy chair or sofa to play games on the TV, whereas a lot of the range is focused on competitive angles or streaming. That’s fair enough, though some of our team have seen the concept images and gone from ‘it’s a bit like a bathroom’ to ‘it was clearly designed by Batman’.
Some of the PR blurb is below:
In total, the new gaming range includes more than 30 products, covering both furniture – gaming desks and chairs, a drawer unit – and accessories – a mug holder, a mouse bungee, a neck pillow, a ring light and many more. The new range offers gaming desks and chairs of different price range to meet the needs of different target groups.
“We want our products to offer better ergonomics and functions so that gamers can become even better at what they do without wearing out their bodies – become better athletes, basically.” – says Jon Karlsson, IKEA designer.
Some of the products seem strange; this scribe isn’t an IKEA regular so didn’t realise weird wooden hands were a popular product, and there’s now a chunky variant for gamers.
There’s also a neck pillow, which we understand could be very useful for people with injuries or comfort issues, but nonetheless seems like an odd inclusion in this range. Maybe it’s for simulating a mid-flight nap on a longer journey in Microsoft’s Flight Simulator.
As you can guess, we’re not convinced by IKEA’s gaming range, but if it is for you then it’ll definitely be worth a look when it rolls out in October.
