The Nex Playground, a new family-friendly console launching in the UK this month, aims to revive the motion-controlled video game boom of the 2000s. This pint-sized device, roughly the size of two and a half Rubik's Cubes, uses a wide-angle camera and AI-powered tracking to put players directly into the action without controllers.
A Blast from the Past
For a wonderful moment in the noughties, video games became a truly universal pursuit. The Nintendo Wii flew off the shelves, inspiring a wave of competitors such as the Xbox Kinect that encouraged people to play games by moving their bodies. But the tide turned: outside of still-niche VR gaming and the odd controller-waggler on the Switch, motion-controlled gaming has barely been seen for more than a decade. Now, 20 years later, the Nex Playground is aiming to get the whole family flailing in front of the TV once again.
How It Works
Using a wide-angle lens and AI-powered tracking tech, the Nex Playground offers over 50 games that track players’ bodies as they leap, flail, and dance about the living room. Physically leaping through puddles in Peppa Pig: Jump and Jiggle, dancing in time to Rick Astley on Starri, and slicing up watermelons with hands in Fruit Ninja, the tech works seamlessly and accurately.
Pricing and Subscription
The Playground retails at £269 ($299) – significantly less than any other games console. But it comes with just five free games; the rest of its library is locked behind a £90 annual subscription. In the US, where it launched in 2023, the Playground has sold over a million units, even outselling Microsoft’s Xbox consoles during 2025’s Black Friday week. Nex president Thomas Kang says, “It was a nice surprise to hear that we outsold Xbox. When we saw that news story we were like, ‘Is this fake?!’”
Safety First
None of the camera data from Nex play sessions is saved – either offline or online – meaning families can happily embarrass themselves without worrying about tracking. “Safety is number one,” says Kang. Nex CEO and co-founder David Lee explains that the Playground started life as an AR basketball training app during the Covid pandemic. Users loved flailing along to phone-camera mini games, so he set about designing a console that would encourage children to stay fit.
Real-World Sports Connection
By partnering with the NHL and US basketball leagues, as well as demoing at Wimbledon, Nex is betting that a connection with real-world sports will keep the cube from becoming another costly dust-magnet. “For core gamers motion control gaming could be a novelty,” says Lee. “But for families, it’s the solution to Friday game night, for staying fit.”
Future Plans
Online multiplayer is coming soon via parent-controlled “playdates,” aiming to connect older relatives with families. “The intention of that is solving the loneliness problem,” says Lee. “We want to create a space where grandparents play with their grandkids, even if they cannot be physically together.” Game publishers who’ve previously made games for Kinect and VR are already coming to Nex, with child-focused brands such as Hasbro, DreamWorks, and Mattel licensing games.
The most family-friendly dedicated games console currently available, Nintendo’s Switch 2, recently raised its price to £395.99, with new games at £50+ each. The Nex Playground offers a more affordable option, capturing the simple joy that the Wii ushered in decades ago. It launches in the UK on 22 June.
