I spent my week at CES 2026, jumping into rideshares to meet appointments at different hotels in a city holding a couple hundred thousand people more than it normally does. I met with tons of companies, and most of those meetings are pretty straightforward. They show me the products they showed me a month ago in New York, plus a couple more, and I get to talk to spokespeople. But one appointment stood out: Nex Playground.

You've probably heard the name; it's been making headlines. The console outsold Xbox in November this year, and yes, that includes Black Friday. After trying it, I totally understand why.

The Nex Playground is just...fun

It's family-style gaming, and who doesn't love that?

I went to see Nex twice at CES. Rich Pinnock-Edmonds, our PC Hardware and Home segment lead, saw them three times. It was just so refreshing amongst this series of meetings with companies that want to push some iterative product.

The Nex Playground is a really simple device. It comes with five games, with 45 more available on its Play Pass subscription service for $89 a year (or $49 for three months). Some of the games are aimed at younger children, and some are more appropriate for all ages.

There's no controller, only a remote control that's just used for navigating the UI. All of your interaction with the games are done via the 180-degree camera that seems to cover any size space, and you can play with up to four people at a time.

We played games like Homerun Heroes, Bowling Strike, and Tennis Smash. It's all very reminiscent of Wii Sports, and they even had some foam bats that could be used as props. I absolutely demolished both Rich Pinnock-Edmonds and MakeUseOf's Gavin Philips.

There's also a Bluey game, Barbie, and a suite of Sesame Street games, with more being added regularly. You can't purchase games, as you get access to the full library with the subscription.

The beauty of the Nex Playground seems to lie in its simplicity. It reminds me of when I was younger and gaming was more of a family activity, or at least more of a group activity. There's no online chat, no friends list, and no online multiplayer, although Nex is working on a secure way to play friends and relatives.

When thinking about the UX, it really got me thinking about what it's like using Xbox products, which is what I normally use. Whether it's the Xbox Game Bar or the Xbox Series X|S UX, it's designed for a combination of playing games, accessing an array of features, selling you things, and getting to use the features that Microsoft wants you to use.

It's priced right

It comes in at $249, and that's when it's not on sale

The recent headlines have compared the Nex Playground to Xbox Series X|S, but to be clear, this is a totally different product that serves a totally different audience. This isn't for playing AAA games, it's for playing games with your kids. I've got a kid, and I can't wait to play this with them. And I absolutely plan to.

The Nex Playground launched at $199 and was later increased to $249 for the same reason as everyone else's price increases, but it still sells for $199 on shopping holidays like Prime Day. It reminds me of how gaming consoles used to be, before they were full-blown gaming PCs.

Its a very reasonable price. You can get an Xbox Series S for $399 or a Nintendo Switch 2 for $449, but this has a much lower barrier to entry. It's not something that feels like it's a big investment, combined with buying games on top of it.

Who even buys an Xbox anymore?

Microsoft has its own share of problems

We're back to the Xbox comparison, because the scope of this article isn't just how much I loved the Nex Playground when I tried it, and how it made me want to scoop one up so I could play it with my kid. It's that I totally understand why it's selling more than Xbox, at least for specific periods of time.

I own an Xbox Series X, and before that, an Xbox One X, Xbox One, and Xbox 360. I subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate. I'm clearly not here to trash Xbox.

But guys, what are we really doing here? It seems like every month, Xbox game streaming is being launched for another smart TV platform and another Xbox exclusive is available on PlayStation. I don't really understand why you'd buy an Xbox when you can buy a competing product that has all of the Xbox games you want, plus that platform's exclusives.

Moreover, it seems like Microsoft just doesn't care. It's trying to push Game Pass subscriptions wherever it can.

What's coming Nex

What might have excited me more than the product was the people I spoke to about it. It's clear that the folks at Nex deeply care about making a product that helps families spend time together, and for kids to be able to play in a productive way. They never came across as your typical company that's looking for its next revenue stream.

When they spoke to me about online play, they talked about playing with grandma. There's no gameplay with strangers on the internet here. In fact, it doesn't even go through a centralized server. The feature is called Playdate, and it allows users to connect pending approval from parents.

Another thing that's new is UK availability, marking the first market that the Nex Playground is available in overseas.

Finally, while Nex didn't talk about this, our friends over at Polygon reported that the company is partnering with sports leagues like the NBA for more games. Indeed, if you look at the list of games, it does seem a bit lacking for adults, so it'll be fun to have more stuff to play after the kids go to bed.

The Nex Playground is available for $249 on Amazon and elsewhere. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on one and spending more time with it.