For Nex's upstart console, the buzz is good and the game budgets are low. But they just had to raise the price

Largely ignored at GDC 2023, Nex execs tell Game File that "some of the biggest publishers in the world" have gotten in touch to make games for their motion-controlled Playground console.

David Lee, CEO of Nex, posing with the Playground console. Photo: Game File

Two weeks ago, as we were mostly discussing the uncommonly good news that his video game company was experiencing, David Lee and I briefly discussed a looming pothole.

Lee is CEO of Nex and he’d been regaling me in a hotel suite in San Francisco with upbeat news about his company’s upstart motion-controlled Playground game console. The family-oriented machine launched in 2023, had a hot holiday (outsold the Xbox in the U.S. on Black Friday!) and is expected to reach 1 million units sold next month.

But what about the RAM shortages that have been wreaking havoc for so many electronics makers?

Tom Kang, the company’s president chimed in. “We have secured supply for this year,” he said, “But we ran out the last two years. So, if there are signals that there’s going to be excess demand, then we’re going to have to find more supply.”

They’d have to explore all options, Lee said, potentially raising the Playground’s price.

Lee even floated an intriguing change to the Playground. The system uses older DDR4 RAM. But AI companies are placing so many orders for newer DDR5 RAM that supply lines for the older type are closing down in order to spin up more production of DDR5. That could lead to more DDR5 supply, which would be an opportunity for Nex to make a shift. “There’s also technology advancements we could leverage as well, if we move to more highly available memory,” Lee said.

“We want to be a responsible business,” he added. “It’s very important that we manage things really well and continue to service our customers for the long-term. This is the most important thing for us.”

Yesterday, Lee announced to Nex customers that the company was raising the Playground’s price, from $249 to $299, effective April 1. He cited rising costs of “key components — especially memory (DDR) and storage (eMMC)” and said the added expense is “no longer something we can sustainably carry on our own.”

In at least that regard, the Playground is typical. Everyone’s raising prices or warning that they might have to.

But during our chat in SF, I learned plenty about how extraordinary this system and its parent company—with its tiny but growing first-party studios and its six-figure game budgets—has been.