Unexpected PS5 and Xbox Series X rival is only $250 because “we are not going to compete with high-end graphics” – and being “roughly similar to PS3" has made it a best-seller

Nex CEO David Lee has shared why he thinks the unassuming console he deemed an unofficial "spiritual successor" to the Kinect has kept its price low and outsold the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S this year. The three-by-three-inch cube that is the Nex Playground was the second-best-selling console in the US this year, falling just short of the top spot thanks to the launch of the Switch 2.

In an interview with The Game Business, Lee explains how the basic nature of the console helped to keep costs low and, therefore, led to the console's success. "We are not going to compete with high-end graphics," Lee says. "Our graphic capabilities on Nex Playground is roughly similar to PS3. But we can create great games on PS3. The graphics are not bad. It’s 10x the Wii. It’s not that it hasn’t improved [over Wii], it’s definitely improved. And it allow us to create immersive games."

Lee says that the team "made a set of choices" in order to keep the console affordable, which included the low-quality graphics – by today's standards at least – but also the choice to not have a controller and instead to make all games camera and movement-based.

“And there are no controllers," Lee says. "Controllers can be expensive these days. We have a simple remote to navigate games, and that’s it. Everything uses the camera, and the camera can track four people at the same time. We made a set of choices that can keep the price affordable."

Originally priced at $199, it rose to $249 this year, similar to how its competitors have seen price increases in the last few years. The family-friendly framing, cheap pricing, cute look, and social gameplay have made the Nex Playground a hit.

A machine you've almost certainly never heard of just spent a week beating the PS5 as the second-best-selling games console in the US behind the Switch 2