Former Apple Engineer Builds Motion-Sensing Game Console That Outsold Xbox on Black Friday

A Hong Kong Dark Horse Storms the Black Friday Battlefield

Black Friday 2025 brought an unexpected newcomer to the U.S. game console market.

According to Circana, which tracks U.S. game console and software sales, PS5 led Black Friday week with 47% market share, Nintendo Switch 2 held 24%, and a motion-sensing game console called Nex Playground surged to third place with 14% — pushing Microsoft's Xbox out of the top three entirely.

In a console market dominated by Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft for years, this was an extraordinarily rare occurrence. Even more surprising, the disruptor didn't come from Silicon Valley or Tokyo — it was born in Hong Kong.

From Apple Engineer to Gaming Entrepreneur

The company behind Nex Playground is NEX Team Inc., founded by David Lee, who spent eight years at Apple. In 2017, he left Apple to embark on his entrepreneurial journey.

In the early days, NEX Team didn't jump straight into hardware. Instead, the team first developed HomeCourt, a basketball motion-sensing app. Using computer vision and AI technology, the app tracked users' shooting motions through a smartphone camera and provided data analysis. It attracted investment and endorsement from NBA star Steve Nash, earning a solid reputation in the sports tech community.

The experience of developing HomeCourt allowed the team to build deep expertise in human pose recognition and motion capture technology. In 2023, NEX Team distilled these technologies into a hardware product — the Nex Playground, priced at $249.

The device is a motion-sensing game console that requires no controllers and no complicated tutorials — players simply stand up and start moving. Using a built-in camera and AI algorithms, it captures players' full-body movements in real time, transforming the living room into an interactive sports arena. The product is manufactured in partnership with Skyworth Digital and is primarily distributed in overseas markets.

Explosive Growth: From 5,000 to 600,000 Units

Nex Playground's launch, however, was far from smooth. In its first year on the market, the console sold only 5,000 units, barely making a ripple.

But the turning point came quickly. In its second year, sales skyrocketed 30-fold, demonstrating staggering growth momentum. By 2025, cumulative sales had reached 600,000 units. According to The Wall Street Journal, Nex Playground is projected to surpass $150 million in revenue in 2025.

Behind this growth curve is NEX Team's precise market positioning and strategic execution.