RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Gamescom kicks off today in Cologne, Germany, and among the many big game debuts, hands-on demos, and major announcements is a new kind of reveal: Xbox is partnering with Ikea to sell an exclusive set of Xbox-inspired furniture and accessories that you can buy starting this fall. But, according to Xbox, the new collection goes far beyond the typical gamer chair and desk setup.
Carl Ledbetter, head of design at Xbox, has been at Microsoft for more than 30 years (dating back to the days of the IntelliMouse) and is responsible for designing consoles like the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. Ledbetter led the charge with the Ikea collaboration and says the partnership isn’t as unusual as you might suspect . I spoke to Ledbetter exclusively at gamescom ahead of the reveal of YXSTABY (get it?) a “nine-piece collection designed for gaming at home,” and found out that Xbox’s ties to Ikea go back further than you might expect.
An iconic Ikea bookcase influenced the Xbox shape
“The piece of furniture that we use as our de facto test for any console design is the Billy bookcase from Ikea,” Ledbetter says. “So believe it or not, it's a natural fit. I’ve spent all my time [at Xbox] looking at input, controllers, the console, how things fit into the home. [That] matters when you design a console, [the] horizontal and vertical position. [So] this goes back years. The philosophy that we share for designing products at Xbox and at Ikea are nearly identical. So it was like a love connection.”
IGN can exclusively reveal a look at the entire collection, which features nine pieces, including chairs with console pockets, thumbstick-shaped stools, a D-Pad inspired platter to hold your controller, X-shaped pillows, and more. Ledbetter says that planning a series of pieces intended to be picked up, sat on, leaned against, and otherwise interacted with came with a surprising challenge.
“Xbox and Ikea, they both have scale,” Ledbetter says. “We designed for millions of players around the world. Ikea’s already there. The thing that is different, at least for my team and designing this line, was taking into consideration the flat pack. So Ikea, of course [uses a flat pack] in order to ship these things all around the world. When you buy a console, the most you have to do is plug it in and turn it on. But in this case, you have some assembly required. It was just fascinating to work with them side by side and see how to problem-solve. That was pretty fun.” Ledbetter says that, although bringing a collection of furniture to life is inherently different than building a new console, his overarching design philosophy didn’t change.
“First and foremost, the product's got to work,” Ledbetter says. “It has to solve real problems. Whether it's a controller or a piece of furniture, it's the same thing. The second thing is, for gamers, particularly when they're playing Xbox games at home, it's about immersion. It’s in the game you see on the screen and in the controller you hold in your hand. But if you think about it, it's everything around you. The products you sit on, the things that hold your TV, etc. We started talking about those challenges for players and immediately started coming up together with ideas. We tried to find balance.
“The question that the Ikea designers had for me was, ‘Carl, what are the iconic elements of Xbox?’ Number one is the controller. While we've improved it and changed it over time, it's very recognizable. And so there are elements that people interact with on the controller that they just sort of bubbled up to the top. The D-pad was one. So you see the D-pad platter, the D-pad pillow. And of course the thumbstick was just right there. It's such an interactive and engaging thing. We landed on the thumbstick stool.”
Xbox designer reveals the new YXSTABY furniture collection contains plenty of hidden details
Ledbetter says that for hardcore Xbox fans, there will be plenty of Easter eggs when the YXSTABY collection hits stores this fall.
“If you look at the TV stand or the monitor stand, if you look at the detailing that the designers have put on these products, they’re super clean,” Ledbetter says. “There's nothing extra. The materials are honest and authentic. Those same [XBOX] design qualities are used throughout the entire collection.
“They may not stand out immediately. We call it the second level read, third level read. You start to notice the subtleties of these things. There are some subtle things. If you look at the gaming chair, we used green stitching. It is super, super subtle, but for those who know, they'll know. They'll recognize these little qualities.”
The new Xbox furniture line will have plenty of accessibility features
Ledbetter, who contributed to the design of Xbox’s revolutionary adaptive controller, says designing YXSTABY for all gamers was just as important as throwing in subtle nods to hardcore fans.
“The more people who can use the product, the better,” Ledbetter says. “The gaming chair is designed for two types of gaming postures. The first one is just sitting up. It's the leaning forward posture. [For games like] Gears of War: E-Day, maybe you're getting sweaty and it's intense. And then what happens when you beat the boss? [You go back.] Also, what we found in the prototyping process of the pillow is you can actually take it and rest your arms when you play. It creates a really cool experience.
“[Another] accessible design is the monitor stand. You can put the monitor on it and it's more ergonomic, at eye level. So it gets you in a better posture. And then underneath you can put your mouse, keyboard, and a laptop under there. It can fit an Xbox Series S. And then it has all these configurable stands for your headset, for your cellphone. There's a spot in there to charge your controllers. So we really try to accommodate different people and what their needs are.”
Ledbetter would like...
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