You’ve probably never heard of the Nex Playground, but it just quietly outsold the PS5
Kinect? Is that you?
📈 The Nex Playground, a motion-sensing console similar to the defunct Xbox Kinect, outsold the PS5 during the week ending November 22 in the US
🥰 The console is gaining popularity among parents seeking family-friendly gaming alternatives to online-focused consoles like the PS5
🐷 It offers five built-in motion-sensing games and a subscription service for access to a growing library of kid-friendly titles, including Bluey and Peppa Pig.
😫 Microsoft, having previously abandoned Kinect due to player backlash, may be viewing the Nex Playground’s success with envy and disbelief
Remember Kinect? I certainly do. The motion-sensing camera asked players to use their whole bodies to interact with games, and most people – I’d argue – absolutely hated it.
The backlash against Kinect was so extreme that Microsoft reversed its decision to bundle the camera with every Xbox One and eventually killed it off entirely.
Imagine my surprise, then, that a small cube-like console – which has essentially copied the same idea as Kinect – managed to outsell the PS5 in the week ending November 22 in the US.
That’s according to Mat Piscatella, senior director of Circana, who shared the surprising news on BlueSky.
Yes, the Nex Playground is a console you’ve likely never heard of, and yet it’s proving extremely popular with parents who are tired of their kids scurrying off to play Fortnite with strangers online in the solitude of their bedrooms.
Nex Playground includes five motion-sensing games for its $249 asking price, but you can access a growing library of titles via an Xbox Game Pass-like subscription model ($49 for three months, $89 for 12 months). There’s some big, kid-friendly games included too, like Kung Fu Panda, Bluey, Peppa Pig and Barbie.
With the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S struggling to sell these days, no thanks in part to two recent price hikes, I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft is looking at the Nex Playground sales with some envy and disbelief. After all, this is exactly what the Kinect offered, yet it was shunned by gamers.
It’s unclear if the Nex Playground’s motion-sensing tech is as advanced as Kinect, and it also doesn’t seem to support voice commands like Microsoft’s ill-fated camera. However, its family-focused design is clearly appealing, and that’s something the Xbox brand was never likely to replicate.
Still, if I’m a Microsoft executive, I’d be feeling pretty red-faced right now.
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Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. He also runs a retro gaming YouTube channel called Game on, boy! Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.