Alas, we don’t know yet what this range of products will look like just yet, but Asus say they will form a “comprehensive home gaming ecosystem”. At a minimum, I’d expect at least a couple of desks and chairs to be included, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we also saw some lighting products in there, too, perhaps along the lines of Corsair’s strange RGB light sticks. “The ultimate goal is to create a whole new category of gamer-friendly gear and home furnishing solutions to empower everyone, from novice gamers to hardcore players, to create their dream gaming spaces,” Asus said in a statement. “Gamers have always dreamed of the perfect gaming space that is both comfortably functional and enables full immersion in games. With years of experience delivering innovative gaming solutions to gamers, ROG has a strong understanding of the gaming community. Together with Ikea as an expert in home furnishing, we envision that this collaboration will create synergies that empower gamers to build the gaming space they have always imagined in the comfort of their own homes.” Gaming furniture isn’t a new concept, of course. We’ve already seen terrifying make-shift gaming beds and motorised gaming desks that can house not one, but two entire PCs inside them, but they’ve always tended to veer on the “l33t gamer” aesthetic - certainly not the kind of thing you’d be fine with owning up to if someone outside your immediate family saw it in your house, anyway. Not all gaming furniture has been an affront to human eyeballs, though. Logitech recently unveiled a new gaming chair designed in partnership with the chair boffins at Herman Miller, for example, as well as an accompanying mechanised gaming desk to go with it. But Herman Miller being Herman Miller, the chair alone costs a whopping £1059 in the UK, while the desk goes for £995. That’s a lot of cash for a simple gaming setup, so fingers crossed Asus and Ikea’s efforts will be a little easier on the old bank account. I’d imagine they will be toward the cheaper end of the furniture spectrum, what with Ikea being Ikea, but you never know. Will everything be encrusted with RGB LEDs? With the first set of products due to launch in February 2021, only time will tell…
