According to the popular marketing insight service Circana, on November this year the 3rd most sold console has been NEX Playground. In case you don’t know what it is, here’s the console.
The console is small and cubic, and has no controller. You play videogames like you did on XBOX Kinect years ago. The target audience is clear, the same as WII, families. The business model is subscription. You buy the console for around $250 and then you pay a monthly fee to get access to all games. The power, according to a recent interview of its company founder, is similar to a PS3. No next gen, no controller, simplicity at its best.
Will this console beat next gen consoles like PS6? No, of course not. But to me, the fact that has oversold XBOX for instance is a sign that:
- Console market is not dead at all, as someone says
- The market needs something simpler
Europe needs something like this, for me. Especially now that we are researching more on making our own chips to not be dependent on China, it would be great making our own console, as an excuse and for the chance of building our own Nintendo. I would probably target 10-13 preteens in full “obsession age” and make cool games. I would probably also add a simple 2 buttons controller for having better kinesthetics for whoever who doesn’t want to move.
The main feature, to me, should be that the console should work like old consoles: you turn ON and the game appears. No connections, no loadings, no system checks before it’s truly needed. It would be so cool to participate in a project like that!