Nex Playground expands to Germany as publishers queue up Kinect and Wii revivals

Nex Playground is expanding into Germany later this year at a retail price of €319, marking the next phase of its international growth. The family-friendly micro-console has already achieved over a million units sold globally and is approaching a million paying subscribers, bolstered by fresh investment and an expanded leadership team that includes EA founder Bing Gordon and former Niantic and Zynga CFO Jeff Shouger.

The Germany launch follows a blockbuster US debut where Nex Playground outsold Xbox over Black Friday, and a UK rollout in March that introduced a Doctor Who title to its subscription catalogue. Nex Team president Thomas Kang told GamesIndustry.biz that the UK launch is "beating forecasts, which is a good sign." The company found particular success marketing through TikTok in the UK, which functioned as a discovery and sales channel. Within two months, over one thousand creators produced user-generated content showing how the device works, mostly without direct involvement from Nex's marketing team.

With a curated library of over 60 games, Nex Playground is addressing discovery challenges by introducing user-facing features. These include the ability to mark favourite games, editorial picks, and using the device's camera and play history to surface relevant titles. CEO David Lee noted that future features could include user surveys to better understand preferences while "always prioritizing privacy."

Publishers are actively approaching Nex Team about reviving older motion-control catalogues. "Every major publisher has approached us to review their old Kinect catalogue, Wii catalogue, and also to consider their IPs," Kang said. The company has already launched Freefall Racers, a 2013 Kinect title from Smoking Gun Interactive, which Lee says is being played by 150,000 families after its first month. "My prediction is that this game probably reaches half a million families in year one," he added.

For established franchises, Nex Playground recently announced partnerships with Sega and Bandai Namco for Sonic Forces: Rival Rush and Pac-Man respectively. Lee was initially sceptical about Pac-Man's fit for motion controls but changed his mind after testing. "You just use your finger to point where Pac-Man should go," he explained. "Pac-Man works because you see the entire map, identify goals, and strategise movements to avoid the Ghost Gang and navigate the space effectively." The company intentionally chose retro IPs to appeal to multigenerational families.

Nex Playground raised the US price of its hardware from $249 to $299 earlier this year due to component and memory shortages. Lee emphasised the increase "does not cover all the cost increases," but the company is committed to absorbing further costs rather than raising prices again. "We want to make sure our device is accessible to families," Kang said. "We're doing everything we can to maintain and absorb some of those cost increases."

The Play Pass subscription service remains unchanged at $89 annually or $49 quarterly. Kang stressed the platform's strategy is not volume-focused. "Our goal is not to have thousands of games on the platform," he said. "It's a finite number of very high-quality games." The subscription service has exceeded internal expectations with high renewal rates and attach rates already surpassing 90% for some user cohorts. Lee noted the platform is seeing strong adoption even in territories without commercial availability, citing Australia where over a thousand devices have been activated organically with attach rates matching US levels.