The Stone Soup We Cook
A Thanksgiving Reflection
In 2017, the year Nex was founded, I attended a Thanksgiving event at Hidden Villa in Los Altos Hills, CA. It was called Stone Soup: The Season of Sharing, and its message has stayed with me ever since.
In the Stone Soup story, everyone contributes, and together they create a meal to remember.
That philosophy has shaped how we built Nex and Nex Playground. Nex exists because of long-term, win-win relationships across our entire ecosystem. It is a company built together with employees, partners, and the community we serve.
Last year, I shared how we got started. This year, I’d like to reflect on how we evolved.
We entered 2025 with both excitement and challenges.
The excitement came from selling through every single unit produced. Retailers including Walmart, Target, and Best Buy committed to expanding Nex’s footprint in their stores. Amazon deepened our partnership. Sam’s Club came on board. And we entered Canada with Walmart Canada. Today, Nex Playground is available in more than 5,400 stores.
The challenge was that we sold through the inventory originally reserved for Q1. Our partners were left with empty shelves. Nex Playground was out of stock for an extended period. Global supply chain disruptions and cost increases earlier this year added even more pressure. We were fortunate to have Skyworth Digital working tirelessly to strengthen our supply chain, secure material in advance, and diversify production to build resilience.
It has also been a year of major technology advancements. We rolled out more accurate and performant AI models. We added new sensing features that track hand pose and face pose, used in Mirrorama, Bluey, and more titles to come. We squeezed more features and performance from the hardware our customers already have. And we improved our manufacturing processes to make the product even more robust than last year.
With a growing subscriber base, we significantly increased our content production budget for 2025. We partnered with beloved franchises including BBC Studio’s Bluey, Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster, NBC Universal’s Gabby’s Dollhouse and How to Train Your Dragon, the NHL, Paramount’s TMNT, Spin Master’s Unicorn Academy, and Zumba. Alongside them are our original titles Mirrorama, HomeRun Heroes, Copy Cat Deluxe, BoxFlow Fitness, Mingles, and Nex Pets. In total, we are on track to ship 20 new games and experiences this year, plus many updates. I’m also happy to share that we are increasing our production budget again next year to bring more frequent and exciting content to Nex Playground families.
The Nex team has grown to more than 120 people across the US, Canada, Hong Kong, and the UK. We are attracting world-class talent. It is the highest concentration of talent I have ever seen, and we are setting our sights on building a company that will last beyond our lifetime.
Yesterday, we crossed an important milestone together — the 500,000th Nex Playground sold.
And we could not do any of this without you, our user community. The bugs you report, the suggestions you make, the stories you share, the reviews you leave, and the words you spread continue to shape Nex. We share your feedback and experiences across the company as a constant reminder of why we do what we do. In moments of difficulty, your words lift us up.
Many families place Nex Playground in the center of their homes. With that privilege comes responsibility. Our mission is clearer than ever. We want to do good for families. Play that keeps you active and brings families together. A companion and a catalyst for growth. Safe, private, and secure. New content regularly. No ads. No nags. Play that moves you.
At the bottom of the stone soup is the stone itself. For us, that stone is Nex’s resolve to be a force for good — built on a model that gives more than it takes.
The stone soup we are cooking together is only getting better. And we are just getting started.
Thank you for your contribution.
Happy Thanksgiving!