Nex Playground became no. 2 US game console by focusing on fun over fidelity says CEO David Lee

In an industry dominated by longstanding juggernauts like Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo, Nex Playground has emerged as a budget, family-friendly, casual-gaming competitor to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S.

The Nex Playground retails for $250. This cube-shaped console has managed to become a big seller, even outpacing PS5 sales during the week leading up to Black Friday. It’s also become the number-two best-selling console in the United States, behind the Nintendo Switch 2.

Unlike true-to-life visuals and an increasing focus on graphics and ray tracing in gaming, Nex Playground takes the opposite approach. The simple console focuses on active, fun gameplay and appeals to a broad audience thanks to its low price point.

According to Nex CEO David Lee, Nex Playground is a spiritual successor to Xbox’s now-defunct Kinect motion sensor.

In a recent interview with the Game Business, Lee candidly talked about the reason behind Playground’s success. He stated:

We are not going to compete with high-end graphics. Our graphic capabilities on the Nex Playground are roughly similar to the PS3. But we can create great games on PS3.

The graphics are not bad. It’s 10x the Wii. It’s not that it hasn’t improved over Wii; it’s definitely improved. And it allows us to create immersive games.

Another key reason for Playground’s success, according to Lee, was ditching controllers. He further explained, “And there are no controllers. Controllers can be expensive these days. We have a simple remote to navigate games, and that’s it. Everything uses the camera, which can track four people at the same time. We made a set of choices that can keep the price affordable.”