Meet the UVA alumnus behind Amazon’s top-selling Plug and Play video game

Business & Government

Meet the UVA alumnus behind Amazon’s top-selling Plug and Play video game

Alex Wu goes to work in his living room, fighting bad guys alongside his 4-year-old son, Cassian.

“To me,” Wu said, “that’s the most fulfilling thing.”

Wu is a 2007 University of Virginia alumnus, a McIntire School of Commerce product, and one of the brains behind Nex Playground, Amazon’s No. 1 seller in the that .

Alex Wu speaking on stage at a conference.

Wu speaks at a conference on behalf of Nex. The company has made a significant surge in the video game industry over the last year. (Contributed photo)

The pint-sized, motion-controlled gaming system with full-body playing experiences offers game titles such as Barbie Dance Party, Bluey Bust-a-Move and, Cassian’s favorite, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rooftop Mayhem.

“It’s exhausting,” Wu said. “You’re basically doing jump squats until you can’t do it anymore. You’re hitting bad guys, you’re getting pizza. You’re doing a bunch of things.

“But it’s a lot of fun.”

Nex Playground has endorsements from A-list celebrities such as Chrissy Teigen, John Legend and , but it’s the affirmation from Cassian that gives Wu the most pride. After all, what’s better than receiving product feedback from your own children?

“They have no filter,” Wu said. “It’s awesome.”

Wu is a Nex founding team member and vice president of the company’s strategy, business development and partnerships team. If Nex were a restaurant, he said, it would be his job to shop for the best ingredients for his chefs. “You want truffles,” he said, “I’m going to get you the best truffles out there at the best price.”

Wu plays a vital role in landing licensing agreements with Nex’s high-profile partners, which now include Sesame Street, Mattel and the National Hockey League. Long before the launch of in October, Wu and his team traveled to Brisbane, Australia, to meet with executives .

The pitch featured Wu’s expertise on the animated series aimed at preschool children. Wu is 40.

“I wanted to show them that we were going to be very respectful and guardians of the brand and (intellectual property),” he said. “I was like, ‘Literally, you can ask me anything. Ask me anything about any episode. I’ve watched all of them with my son multiple times. You can quiz me. Go for it.’”

Wu apparently had all the right answers as Nex Playground gained a rare win. “Bluey,” he said, “only distributed a few licenses this year for games. And one was with Lego. So, we had a lot of hoops to jump through.”

Wu lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and worked for Meta, Uber and Quora before helping create Nex in 2018. The company rose to prominence with the launch of its HomeCourt app, backed by Steve Nash and Mark Cuban, among other NBA notables.

The app’s main function was to record and track basketball shots, but it grew popular during the COVID-19 pandemic with non-basketball athletes for its digital exercise features.

“Pretty quickly,” Wu said, “we took out a bunch of those features and put in a whole app called ‘Active Arcade.’ We launched that app as a test on iPhone and Android for free. … We got more downloads on Active Arcade in a month than we did over four years of HomeCourt.”

Out of that data formed the idea for Nex Playground, which debuted in December 2023 and has skyrocketed to the top of the gaming field. Wu said they expect to sell more than 500,000 units by the end of this year.

Wu and his family posing for a photo in front of the UVA Rotunda steps.

Wu and his family enjoy a sunny day on the Lawn. Wu is a McIntire School of Commerce product who also majored in politics. (Contributed photo)

“You can join our community group on Facebook,” Wu said. “It’s incredibly moving to see these stories – children on the autism spectrum and children with disabilities being able to play video games alongside their families and siblings for the first time. It’s truly special, and it’s an honor to serve those communities.”

Nex Playground, , can be enjoyed by anyone from 5 to 95 (plus 4-year-old Cassian). “A lot of grandparents are buying this for their grandkids,” Wu said, “and they end up playing more than them.”

Beyond the brand-name games, Nex Playground also offers NexGym Fitness and Box Flow Fitness in its deep catalog. Last December, former UVA basketball star Joe Harris, a Nex investor, purchased more than 100 units for Chelan High School in Washington, his alma mater and where his father served as the longtime physical education teacher and basketball coach.

During an age when parents are trying everything to limit their children’s screen time, Nex Playground provides an active alternative for kids to still engage in digital activity.

“What’s unique about this product,” Wu said, “is the games aren’t addictive in the traditional sense because, like sports, they eventually tire you out in a healthy way.”

Just ask the 40-year-old after he’s done fighting bad guys.

“It’s tiring, dude,” he said.