Asus has written to HEXUS about a new partnership it has forged with furniture giant IKEA. The firm's ROG PC gaming division will be creating gaming furniture and accessory designs for IKEA stores worldwide. This partnership aims to deliver gaming furniture designs to the masses with a compelling mix of affordability and comfort – and it hopes customers will "find fun ways to secure more victories, from bedroom to basement". Asus ROG IKEA furniture will debut in Feb 2021 and consist of about 30 products to start with.
A mix of furniture and accessories will launch first in China (in Feb next year) before rolling out worldwide from October. An IKEA blog post shares some photos from a recent Asus ROG and IKEA gamers' workshop in Shanghai but I can't really see any sure hints at the product range from the images. One picture shows execs pondering over a Bekant corner desk, but they might be speaking about how unsuitable it is rather than praising it. Furthermore the range is heralded as "all new".
Asus ROG IKEA furniture and accessories are meant to "increase performance while also blending in beautifully to homes," so probably won't be garish, outlandish, or RGB infused but based largely upon the simple IKEA design lines that make it popular.
Asus ROG talks about IKEA helping it create "the perfect gaming space that is both comfortably functional and enables full immersion in games." It reckons there are synergies between the furniture design expertise at IKEA and the innovative gaming solutions from Asus to bring wide appeal to these products. Good ergonomics are said to play a vital part in this partnership.
As well as the Shanghai meeting photo-documented here, Asus and IKEA say they held many personal and virtual meetings at the IKEA Product Development Centre (Shanghai) and Asus Design Centre (Taipei and Shanghai), which amounted to several hundred hours of collaboration on these products - spanning ideation, design, development, testing, experiment and modifications.
As mentioned in the intro, this furniture and accessories range will debut in China in Feb next year but we are unlikely to be able to browse and purchase such products here in the west until October next year.
