Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
The Nex Playground’s unexpected success, even outselling Microsoft’s Xbox for a period, might have seemed unbelievable a year ago. This compact, three-inch cube console, likely less powerful than a smartphone, relies on a single camera for body tracking. It exclusively features curated, kid-safe games. Despite comparisons to the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Kinect, its motion tracking capabilities are reportedly inferior.
The device also comes with a significant price tag: $250 initially, followed by an $89 annual or $49 quarterly subscription for access beyond the basic game sampler. Individual games cannot be purchased separately. Many titles are described as simple or graphically unappealing, lacking the polish found in Nintendo or top Apple Arcade games.
Despite these drawbacks, a five-year-old, even while feeling unwell, eagerly requested to play. During a virtual bowling session, even a typically reluctant grandparent joined in. A nine-year-old expressed a desire to retry after her virtual airplane crashed.
This one wide-angle camera tracks up to four people.
The quality of the games seemed secondary to the players. The appeal lay in their simplicity, requiring no controllers or prior experience, and the ability to play on a large screen. The games encouraged physical activity like dancing, jumping, and arm swinging, which also provided entertainment watching others participate. However, some game experiences also led to frustration and tears.
Decades ago, the Nintendo Wii utilized an infrared camera and accelerometer for basic arm movement and orientation tracking. Later, Microsoft’s Kinect offered full-body tracking without controllers, employing infrared light patterns to estimate 3D skeletal positions.
The Playground operates differently; the console itself is a box featuring a single wide-angle camera, with HDMI and USB-C power ports on the rear. It lacks 3D depth perception, instead estimating body poses from flat images.
“Holding” my bowling ball with a six-joint skeletal pose.
The bowling game has fun Christmas unlockables like a gingerbread ball and toy nutcracker pins.
At times, the system is impressive, identifying six key joints (shoulders, elbows, hands) to allow actions like bowling. However, the lack of depth perception can lead to confusion. For instance, if one child sat on a couch while another bowled nearby, the Playground might incorrectly attribute all limbs to a single player, causing frustration and tears when turns were accidentally stolen. Similar issues arose when the system lost track of a player’s hand during a swing, resulting in missed shots and repeated frustration.
Single-camera tracking is susceptible to numerous interferences, a fact acknowledged by Nex. The device’s warnings advise against wearing patterned or long-sleeved clothing, recommend playing in well-lit but not backlit environments, and suggest avoiding non-players in the camera’s field of view.
The USB-C power cable comes with a detachable magnetic camera privacy cover.
While these guidelines aim to improve person-from-background differentiation for the camera, adhering to them can be challenging, especially for families. For example, children often play in pajamas, which frequently feature long sleeves and repeating patterns like hearts, stars, or cartoon characters. Adjustments like rolling up sleeves and strategic seating became necessary. The instruction to ‘avoid non-players in the camera view’ often required clearing the entire play area, with non-participants standing far aside or sitting on a couch with their hands concealed to prevent the camera from misidentifying players.
The bundled remote. Most games make you switch to it for navigating menus; rarely used for gameplay.
Despite these efforts, children often found the controls frustrating. A five-year-old struggled with precision in a Nintendogs-like game, exclaiming difficulty in keeping her hand steady. While many games allow for wild arm movements, some unexpectedly demand precise cursor dragging for virtual button presses.
Perceived input lag was also an issue, even when connected to a low-latency OLED TV with Game Mode enabled. In Nex’s kart racer, steering responsiveness in the fastest 150cc mode felt inadequate.
Nevertheless, these issues did not entirely prevent enjoyment, especially with games that did not demand high precision. Children particularly enjoyed Mirrorama, which transforms the TV into an interactive mirror, offering magical camera filters that allow users to shoot lightning, stretch faces, blur like Sonic, or dance with clones.
Mirrorama proved to be a significant source of laughter. Another enjoyable title was Copy Cat, which involved striking cartoon poses for AI evaluation. A Breakout-style game,
, was also noted for its engaging multiball action and forgiving paddle control, requiring only left or right body movements.
However, the overall value proposition is questionable due to many games being simplistic, repetitive, or outright frustrating from the start, such as Connect 4 Bounce, which proved difficult to play. Many sports games suffer from either excessive ease or steep learning curves because the camera’s lack of depth perception hinders accurate ball-hitting detection. In a tennis game, for instance, arm movements only control swing timing, requiring full body shifts for aiming.
Nex highlights its success in attracting major children’s brands like Bluey, Peppa Pig, Gabby’s Dollhouse, Sesame Street, How to Train Your Dragon, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. However, these licensed titles did not universally captivate young players.
Even the Bluey game, considered one of the better licensed offerings, failed to fully engage its target audience. Initial interest in Unicorn Academy waned due to limited exploration options. The TMNT game, an endless runner requiring constant jumping, proved frustrating. Similarly, a repetitive Bluey balloon-bouncing game quickly lost its appeal.
Despite these criticisms, the Playground’s library likely contains titles that will resonate with some children. One child expressed a desire to play a puppy game, while another enthusiastically cheered for bowling. Even with frequent tracking issues, a Flappy Bird-style game, where up to four players jump to guide dragons, remains a favorite.
The Playground’s cost-to-game value ratio seems unfavorable. However, its appeal demonstrates that enjoyment isn’t solely dependent on technical perfection. Similar to classic arcade games that were often unfair or flawed, the desire for ‘just one more turn’ can override execution quality.
Photography by Sean Hollister / The Verge
