Ikea has never really tried to tap into the gamer market even though its affordable furniture has certainly found its way into battle stations around the world. Well, now Ikea is acknowledging the 2.5 billion gamers out there with several new product lines designed specifically to cater to them.
Ikea and Asus's Republic of Gamers are teaming up to "democratize the gaming experience by creating relevant, functional, beautiful, and affordable products.” Apparently, Ikea believes that democracy functions on the consumption of reasonably-priced furniture. Which isn’t exactly true, but nobody told them that.
”We believe there’s a lot to be done to democratize the gaming experience,” said Ewa Rychert, Ikea’s global business leader of workspace. “Now, we take the first step on our gaming journey, and we do it by presenting affordable, high-performing gaming products and complete solutions that we hope reflect people’s personality and taste.”
Ikea's new product lines will contain 30 new items that range from gaming desks and chairs all the way to accessories like mug holders and mouse pads. In keeping with Ikea's tradition, the six new product lines each have delightfully Swedish names: Uppspel (which, according to Google, translates to "play" in English), Lanespelare (lane players), Matchspel (match play), Gruppspel (group games), Utespelare (outdoor players), and Huvudspelare (main player).
Each product line will cover a range of different prices, but Ikea didn't provide those prices in its press release. Also, although all product lines were made in collaboration with Republic of Gamer, only the Uppspel line will feature ROG's black and red color scheme. Everything else will come in typical Ikea base colors like white or beige.
ROG and Ikea's collaboration will arrive in stores starting next month, just in time for the holiday rush.