The Nex Playground console, currently reduced to £214.99 at Argos, uses a camera instead of a controller to keep children active while gaming, and it has led some kids to ditch their PS5, Nintendo Switch and Xbox.
Gaming can often feel inaccessible for younger children, and console prices have risen throughout 2026 due to the ongoing 'RAM crisis' driven by demand from the AI sector. Many parents may also be hesitant to introduce their children to video games for fear of encouraging laziness and long sitting sessions.
Nex advertises itself as a company that wants to encourage active play between families and friends. One way it has attempted to do this is through the Nex Playground console, which is currently reduced to £214.99 on Argos, down from £269.99. It's also reduced on Amazon, costing 1p less at £214.98.
Camera-based gameplay and safety
The Nex Playground's most striking feature is its lack of a controller, with players instead engaging in games with their own body, which is tracked through the console's built-in camera. Nex has confirmed that its console is both kidSafe and COPPA compliant, with the company itself being a member of the Family Online Safety Institute.
The console contains a library of over 60 games ranging in a wide variety of genres, including sports, education, dance, and more. It also includes official collaborations with some major children's entertainment franchises, including Bluey, Avatar the Last Airbender, and Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir.
All of these games can be accessed with the small remote control that comes with the console. The remote only features a four-way directional button, a back button, and a home button, which is much simpler than the controllers commonly associated with many consoles.
Interface and setup niggles
While the remote's simplicity allows even small children to easily navigate Nex's simple interface, some decisions in the interface's design seemed unintuitive and were confusing for the many children who tried the console out. When selecting a game, players are taken to a main screen displaying the game's information, and one child struggled with actually getting the game to start. After fiddling with it, they figured out that all they had to do was press down on the remote and then hit start.
The setup process was overall very simple, but just a little bit longer than would be ideal. Scrolling through pages' worth of terms and conditions and painstakingly putting in a Wi-Fi password with the remote, which had to be done twice due to a fault, felt much more arduous with the repeating music in the background.
Play Pass subscription and deals
Once the setup was finished and control was given over to the children, it didn't take them long to try out a wide variety of games. Parents should note that the library is accessible through Nex's Play Pass subscription. Parents who grab the console will have to purchase either an annual subscription for £90 or a quarterly Play Pass for £45.
Of the few dozen games played, none of them felt like they were lazily made, a common problem in many 'children-focused games', and all provided more than enough entertainment for an evening. The console is currently discounted from £269 to £214.98 on Amazon in a limited-time deal, which doesn't include the play pass and is only available until September 2. It is also discounted on Argos at £214.99, though this purchase doesn't include the Play Pass subscription.
For something different, the LEXIBOOK handheld console is available on Amazon for £24.99, providing a built-in library of over 150 retro-style games. Alternatively, the GREENTREEN Educational Motion Gaming Console has been reduced on Amazon from £74.25 to £72.25, providing a variety of games for children to play while keeping active, with motion-detected controllers.
