Kid-friendly Nex Playground video game console increasing price to $299, still requires $90 subscription to play all games

Everything is getting more expensive, even smaller-scale niche gaming products like the Nex Playground.

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On the heels of an Xbox price hike, and the PS5's suspected 100 Euro price increase across Europe, another lesser-known console-maker is also raising prices.

The kid-friendly Nex Playground mini-console will soon raise prices by $50, going from its current $249 price to a $299. If that price looks familiar, it's actually the same price that the best-selling Nintendo Switch launched at in 2017.

The culprit for the price hike is the ongoing component shortage that's affecting the entire electronics market. AI data centers are eating up all the chips, and higher demand is skyrocketing prices of critical parts like storage and DRAM memory.

What's most interesting about the Nex Playground is that it requires a $90/year subscription in order to fully play. The console comes with a 5-game starter pack for free, but all the other games can only be played on a subscription called the PlayPass.

Nex co-founder and CEO David Lee explains the situation in his own words:

Over the past six months, the cost of key components - especially memory (DDR) and storage (eMMC) - has risen significantly across the industry. These increases are driven in part by the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure, which is reshaping global supply and demand for these parts. You may have seen reports about the broader memory shortage.

Like many consumer electronics companies, we've worked hard to absorb these cost increases for as long as possible. However, at current levels, it's no longer something we can sustainably carry on our own.