In 2019, a report from the World Health Organisation said that more than 80 per cent of adolescents worldwide were not active enough, putting their health at risk. Raising children in an era where screens are everywhere is not easy, especially when it comes to encouraging them to move and engage in physical activity. This is precisely the problem the gaming console Nex Playground is trying to solve.
It is worlds apart from what Xbox or PlayStation have to offer. The easily accessible console comes with a wide range of games designed to keep children engaged and many of these games are equally enjoyable for adults.
The console outsold Microsoft’s Xbox Series S and Series X during Black Friday in the US, proving that it has the potential to be a hit far beyond niche audiences.
Nex Playground is a three-inch cube that can be stored almost anywhere. There is no need for players to strap on controllers to play games. Instead, the device features a built-in camera with AI-powered image processing that tracks motion and gestures. There are more than 40 games and apps pre-installed to get started.
At its core, Nex Playground is built around the idea of movement and social interaction, focusing on engaging, shared experiences. New games are added regularly through the Play Pass subscription. To go beyond the initial 40-plus games, users can opt for a quarterly subscription priced at $49 or an annual plan at $89. The console itself is typically priced at $249.
In Fruit Ninja, players slice flying fruit, while Basketball Knockout has them shooting hoops. On one hand, there are light-hearted games such as Tennis Smash and Arrow Party; on the other, more action-oriented titles like Sword Slash Adventure and Aeon Guard. The console also features licensed IP-based games, including Bluey, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Miraculous, Barbie and Peppa Pig.
Under the hood, the cube is powered by an Amlogic A311D2-NOD CPU, a Mali-G52 MC4 GPU, and 16GB of LPDDR4X RAM. It supports gameplay at up to 4K resolution and 120 frames per second. However, features such as ray tracing are not part of the package. Given the relatively small size of the games, the built-in 64GB SSD is more than adequate.
The camera is powerful enough to accommodate multiple players simultaneously, with fast and precise response times. It can register up to four players at once, with most games supporting two to four participants. Designed for children aged five and above, Nex Playground does not feature advertisements or in-app purchases.
In an interview with The Game Business, the CEO of Nex, David Lee, said the company set out to learn from the rise of Nintendo’s Wii and the challenges it faced. He said: “Nintendo expanded the audience with Wii. When you expand the audience, and they want different things, and they only buy Wii Fit, Wii Sports and not many others, that’s a bit of a problem. Who am I to speak for Nintendo? Nintendo obviously has a really great strategy for how they want to serve the audience. But from our perspective, we want to build something sustainable. If people come in, buy a couple of games and that’s it, the whole system is not sustainable. It’s very important that we set ourselves up to serve our customers continuously with new innovations — that’s how the whole system can sustain itself.”
Before co-founding Nex, Lee was a senior engineering manager at Apple. He led the engineering team behind the development of iWork for iCloud, the web-based version of Apple’s productivity suite, which includes Pages, Numbers and Keynote.
