If someone get’s too many toys it robs them of the voyage to get it.
I had 4 games for my n64 because i had to buy them all myself.
My megadrive only had sonic 1 2 3&k
All other games i got on fleamarkets. Mortal kombat 3 stuff like that
I used to rent games all the time because that was the only realistic way in playing new games.
Then my buddy had a modded ps1 with all the games he wanted … ruined gaming for him.
Your definition of "slow start" varies a bit from mine. Seems like too much too soon to me. In my case, the parents/kids dictated the system they were interested in. From the range offered by that system, I carefully selected a game that I felt would be slightly on the fringe of what the kid normally played and, if given a chance, would offer an excellent and compelling experience. Donkey Kong Country Returns, Ori and the Blind Forest come to mind. The FPS and kid popular stuff would be taken care of by their friends.
what that is, is anyone's guess. if i were a kid these days i certainly wouldn't be into gaming, because it's too mainstream and sanitized. the whole appeal of gaming for me as a kid was that it was an escape and kind of underground (at least to adults), where you could have fun without your parents looking over your shoulder. that whole aspect is kind of gone now because games are either too "safe" and don't have any edge, or they are just derivative crap still trying to be the next mario or zelda 30 years later.
I agree that modern gaming definitely has that mainstream corporate stank on it but it's weird how your draw to it was that it was underground and for nerds.
I like it because it's the most immersive and fun form of entertainment. It makes me think and engage in a way movies, books and music simply can't.
My nephew was big into Mega Man and Street Fighter characters. One day we were playing Street Fighter II and his mom said he couldn’t play it anymore. That was that. It killed the entire thing we had developed. Weird how she never noticed us playing the games before.
My daughter loves all kinds of games. We were playing SF6 and I was teaching her how to do the hadouken. Same thing happened.
I stopped buying extra games for her. The last couple games I bought her she didn’t play. She did buy Advanced Wars, which we’ve played once together. That was cool, but I’ve also returned a lot of the games I gave her. I learned that you don’t buy them for kids. You share what you already have with them.
My bonus daughter, she’ll play anything. She’d play Diablo, but she’s far too young for how dark/violent it is. When it comes to ownership- she’ll clock like 500 hours in MineCraft/Animal Crossing. It’s safe to assume that you share whatever you’re into, but get them the streamlined kids stuff. I even think it’s weird how kids treat gaming these days. They like crafting and managing physical spaces. I always got bored with management simulators as a kid, so I never got into the genre.
I find it hard for kids to appreciate anything and it’s not like they’re going to do it on your time. That’s another reason I stopped buying games for the kids. They want something new the moment they see whatever it is you bought for them. I had a wake up call because it wasn’t the whole “let’s share midnight launches together”. It’s irritating more than it is enjoyable, so it’s best to not take it personal.
I bought my 8 year old a Nintendo Switch a few years ago and library shared my whole collection (about 60 games). I let him discover what was there over time on his own. His favorite ended up being Breath of the Wild.
It took me much longer to get into games on a serious level, despite already having owned a SNES, Genesis, and PS1. It really didn't click for me until I was around 12 years old when FF7 came out. Your nephew might be the same way, or he may never get into it at all.
I’d just be careful you’re spending as much on other nieces and nephews too for gifts.
I wouldn’t like it if one of my kids got a $20 Barbie doll and the other got a Steam Deck, it’s perceived favouritism.
I wouldn't go that far. My daughter has basically beat FF X and IX while she was 7 or so, beat BotW, almost TotK, plays a lot of single player games.
And myself while I liked playing NBA Jam and things when I was younger with friends, I loved single player games at that age. Sure I got even more into them a few years later (with stuff like Daggerfall and Diablo coming out). But I think it's a maybe at that age, certainly isn't impossible but maybe also not likely.
But yeah as far as OP maybe a little too many options. I try to get my daughter to tinker with her PC too and while she does a little bit, not as much as I would like her to like I did around her age. But it was also a different time.
I agree that modern gaming definitely has that mainstream corporate stank on it but it's weird how your draw to it was that it was underground and for nerds.
I like it because it's the most immersive and fun form of entertainment. It makes me think and engage in a way movies, books and music simply can't.
LOL. Choice paralysis, my friend calls it. It kicks into warpdrive the moment I took a look into my Steam, 3DS or Switch library. Too many games!!!!
You appreciate a lot more when you've got a lot less
well as a kid i certainly didn't see it as some kind of social badge and trying to leverage it into looking cool or living through my identity as a gamer or anything like that. that's just how i see it now looking back.
back then there wasn't really the concept of a "gamer" as a social construct, there were just video games and some people played them, kids talked about them sometimes but it wasn't this huge thing like this today, which is kind of what I was getting at.
I mean it seems that he has some kind of taste for "real" games, that is: he likes platformers quite a bit. My suggestion is show him some of the best platformers for PS1, some Kart Racers with cartoon characters may work too. And if he likes horror stuff show him the best PS1 horror games, maybe he likes them because they look like the stuff he watches on Youtube.
I mean it seems that he has some kind of taste for "real" games, that is: he likes platformers quite a bit. My suggestion is show him some of the best platformers for PS1, some Kart Racers with cartoon characters may work too. And if he likes horror stuff show him the best PS1 horror games, maybe he likes them because they look like the stuff he watches on Youtube.
PS1 horror is actual horror meant to scare you, OP said that the kid isn't scared by the 'horror' games and is in it for mascots. He should keep the kid away from horror games and focus entirely on cartoon games.
Firstly, I think it's great that you're so enthusiastic about buying your nephew stuff. My uncles never bought me anything (because my parents hated their respective brothers, oh well it is what it is).
I agree with everyone else in suggesting that he has too much and therefore is incapable of really appreciating any of it.
Back when I was a kid we would get a game console between us (me and my two older brothers) and my parents would almost never let us buy any games at all, precisely because they knew we'd get bored and stop playing them. My dad would take us to the local Blockbuster (wooo nostalgia rush right there) and we'd get to pick one game between us. We had to take it back in three days so we would play the abbbbbbbbbbbsolute shit out of it.
I think that's what your nephew is missing. He has no reason to stick with anything.
That's also the reason why the only Pokemon game I've ever actually completed is Pokemon Red because that was the only game my parents bought me on Game Boy.
It's also the reason that I've almost completed Metroid Dread (I'm still stuck on the very final boss) because I consciously only ever own 3 or 4 games at any one time.
Not the worst idea. As for now, I kinda led him in a direction of distributing the toys. One console is at on grandmother, one at another and steam deck with him of course. But it's summer now so obviously he got his toys at grandparents house
I feel like unless they have that tick/drive for gaming (which IMO would probably manifest much later - and from a peer or someone he admires closer to his own age), you really should just be happy with anything you get. And yes limits are the key. As kids it was always time > choice as adults it is always choice > time. You don't want choice > time as a kid, it doesn't work.
Plus now games for kids need to compete with mobile phone and tablet games, which are undeniably going to be much more popular with their peers. So it's a losing fight, especially that early. I'd say find one thing, nurture that one thing, and remember kids have all the time in the world, they can hone in on a single game for years and its no big deal. It's not a race to see how many games they will finish in a year or whatever. And yes, make sure you balance gaming with other activities, even if you've experienced all other things at this point, and find gaming the most rewarding, they have not, so having a long gaming session may simply not be interesting to them.
To reply seriously rofif
he will find himself on his own, I have a little cousin (well fuck he must be like 18 now) and when he got into gaming it was because they got him a wii, he didnt care for that, later he got a 3ds and a vita, a 360 and idfk what else.
What really got him into gaming wasnt single player games it was multiplayer experiences with friends, so he got into pc gaming and bought a gaming pc to play games like phasmophobia and those other shitty coop horror games.
The social aspect and whoever his friends are is what will decide to what kind of gamer he is or if he even is one
Back growing up I had a Snes and I would play super mario, mario kart and killer instinct, then got a 64. But it was really during the ps2 era that I became hardcore gamer and it was because with a bunch of friends we would spend hours on hours a day playing PES local tournaments, then during the downtime I would go off and explore other types of games.
My first interaction with PC gaming was a MMO (ragnarok online) that an irl friend introduced me to.
TL;DR: your gaming tastes are as much as a byproduct of the friends you have and their interests as they are yours. As an uncle your influence is very limited in this regard so better to go with the flow.
I think to his perspective, you're not much more than what you already gave to him, he already got the types of games from you so he has an idea of what you're interested, he just needs spacing, just distance yourself from him and play your games, not his games, and don't criticize his choices, your critics will just keep him further from your interests, and let him express his interests in games with no conditions so he may listen to your interests, he's just a kid.
Yeah Steam Deck was a bit much but I love the thought behind it, I'm an uncle of two girls so I know that excited uncle feeling to do/introduce something new to them.
I think as he gets older, he will realise what he has.. Kids are ignorant with tunnel vision. Give it time, I would slow down on getting him things, so he has time to stop and smell the roses so to speak.
As an uncle myself, I can relate to this. I want to get him into gaming, but I also wanna be careful. He's far younger than your nephew, but I do think I'll start him off with the NES classic, then work his way up with the SNES classic up to the switch. Around age 12+ is when I'll get him into PS/Xbox/PC.
I feel like some kids just know and feel it early on when they’re really into video games.
Me and my siblings had an uncle like you with an N64. He’d bring over a bunch of games and the first time I ever saw a video game played it was Zelda 64 at around 7 years old. The opening piano melody, Link riding across the land, the intrigue of exploration. It all hit as that title screen played. I knew right then and there I would really get into this hobby.
My siblings? Not really. They might play a 4 player game like goldeneye or PD together, but otherwise they didn’t care too much. I was there nearly every time during summers playing anything I could get my hands on. I had my face buried in game magazines, I’d visit arcades, and would binge G4TV shows like Cinematech a few years later, just to watch trailer reels of games I might want to play some day.
Man this thread is bringing back some good memories of fueling my gaming habit as a kid.
My family was pretty conservative with money, so I would always resort to soft-modding every single console I owned to play more games. Not trying to promote piracy here, but financial limitations served to enable a resourceful + technical mindset at a young age. I'd always played some games on PC, but I really started to appreciate the freedom as I embraced things like emulation, modding, etc.
Maybe stop buying so many games and consoles for the kid and let him learn to appreciate what he has. A console should last him at least 3 years at the minimum.
As an uncle myself, I can relate to this. I want to get him into gaming, but I also wanna be careful. He's far younger than your nephew, but I do think I'll start him off with the NES classic, then work his way up with the SNES classic up to the switch. Around age 12+ is when I'll get him into PS/Xbox/PC.
I think this way, you're unintentionally opened a door to mobile, this s, any excuse these days leads to mobile, don't challenge him with difficult games.
some number of my friends here, gave their kids NES or SEGA, or emulator packed PC, so by the time the kids are getting teenager, they will be given PSX or PS2, and so on and so on. maybe that's the way to progress for their kids, just like their dads.
I'd say don't worry about it. He's only nine. All I played at that age was The Phantom Menace tie-in game because Star Wars was my whole world, lol. He may eventually start getting interest in other games, or he may even grow out of gaming altogether, you just have no control over it.
To be perfectly honest, if I had a kid of my own, I'd probably limit their time gaming as much as possible up until a certain age, and try to get them into other hobbies first, such as reading and music. Even though I love gaming to death, I honestly don't think that it's good for a developing mind to spend all their time gaming. I sometimes wonder if I had access to that many consoles and games at such a young age, would I grow up stupider because of it, lol.
I think I found my new uncle. You can spoil me Uncle Rofif.
*about to get all preachy…
The only way to enjoy anything in this life is to earn it first.
Ginger Rogers
There is a difference between the man who climbs to the summit of Mt. Everest and the man who takes a helicopter. Both are at the top but their enjoyment is not equal. Sacrifice creates value which drives enjoyment.
Consider his age of 9. Kids aren’t the same as when we grew up. They interact with this world differently, choosing to spend countless hours watching someone stream “press start to win” Roblox bullshit instead of learning to create those experiences out of curiosity or necessity OR even ‘playing’ for themselves. I fear it’s a sign of degradation and time will tell its affect on society.
I would recommend you figure a method of allowing him to earn through sacrifice and self improvement instead of gifting It‘s easy as a parent or uncle to lavish the kid with grandiose gadgets which have loads of value to us (sacrificer) but none to them. Also consider the kid may not be a tech head gamer but prefer Sepak Takraw.
Elon Musk kids don't like what he's doing, Gordon Ramsay's daughter doesn't like his cooking, kids are just like that, doesn't mean they s at their parents/uncles hobby, no one should underestimate them.
Easy and unrestricted access to infinite amounts of media will spoil any child or adult. It causes saturation and everything must feel like it has no value. If you want kids to appreciate things, the only way is to limit such access and only let a certain amount at the time through the gates.
I would've kept it simple with a Switch which is relevant to kids today and let him discover. It has all the magic from yesteryear repackaged should he be interested.
It's tough though, kids today might be set back somewhat until early teens with so many more distractions but also remember gaming wasn't the only thing to do as kids in the 80s 90s, many never got into it back then.
There were many simple novelty electronic handheld gaming things back in the 80s and 90s that very casual kids played on the school buses and school trips, it wasn't all Gameboy, Game Gear etc. They only had one game built in and kids would swap them around. Most of those kids that had them never got into owning a NES/SNES Mega Drive PC or serious handhelds etc. These handhelds were very similar to the simple click stuff of today. There were so many gadgets and electronic junk back in the 80s and 90s that most never progressed from.
This was Nintendo but there were many different types.
I would just chill and let him like what he likes. I have a younger brother half my age who mostly plays Fortnite. Sure in the past I suggested games I thought he might like such as Batman Arkham games and Metroid, which he has liked, but other than that his tastes couldn’t be more different than mine but that’s fine.
At some point you have to reel back your enthusiasm or you’ll end up being “that guy” who’s basically going “LIKE WHAT I LIKE,” which is cringe.
Why would a 9yo need several gaming systems, potentially extending it even more with emulation? Why shove decades of gaming down a kid's throat? Sort of throwing a ubi-map onto him and expecting him to appreciate the clutter.
Just different times, where even sometimes supposed poor kids get spoiled way harder than in the past the rich brats?
Already out of the bag now, and now probably demands stuff without actually caring about it and really craving for it.
What he enjoys might not be what you want or expect him to enjoy anyway, but overfeeding at an early age hardly helps. Getting kids gamepass or plus is probably a bad thing one can do, or gifting an entire collection of a hand me down system. Same level as putting your kids in front of the TV or handing them your smartphone because you don't actually want to spend time with the kid.
No idea which youtuber(s) a kid watches, one that gives him apparantly some ideas, but maybe try to actually be his youtuber? Talking about the stuff you liked and why, and listen to what he talks about, and play that together, instead of allowing some random person on the internet to form his desires and throwing presents at him. Probably should be the job of his parents though.
I did not get super many games when I was a kid, we were comparatively poor, but having someone, among the grown ups, to talk about those would have been at least interesting.
Why would the kid give a shite about any one of these systems or games when you are just gonna gift him another one in month.
You might have accidentally spoiled him by giving him so much stuff.
A Switch and figure it out would have been enough.
A SteamDeck as an upgrade if he showed interest.
You gave him decades of gaming in less than 10 years, of course the kid is overwhelmed by choice and picking few titles here and there.
Trim the fat, one or two systems and whatever games he really wants, next time you come with a gift of a new game or system, itll mean so much more.
OMG, I just wrote a really long message to answer here and accidentally closed the tab..................... Ehhh. Unfortunately, when I reopened it was all gone????
Let me try to quickly re-write just the main points, it will be much shorter though (I'm also Polish BTW).
You enjoyed your gaming journey because:
A) You had to achieve everything
- times were different without convenient e-commerce, digital purchases etc.
- Poland was much poorer then and almost no one could afford these gaming systems and games
B) Your gaming journey was mainstream
- everyone had a NES clone back then and started to play PC games later (mostly pirated and stuff from the magazines), that was the trend
The nephew is spoiled/not as invested because:
C) You bought him too much stuff
- if you have a lot, it is tougher to appreciate everything.
- Major changes in Polish society created this situation IMO. The generation of our parents and grandparents were raised in a communist state and they didn't have anything (they weren't even aware that some goods exist). Our generation didn't have much, but wanted more, as commercials and the Internet started to hit in and built the awareness. Current kids now have A LOT, as everyone wants them to have THE CHILDHOOD and the economical situation is better. Polish children receive much more presents nowadays, people have less kids and want them to have the highest possible standard, which leads to spoiling.
D) The attention span is different, shorter
- TikTok, Youtube - all the shows and applications offer quick, flashy entertainment. There are so many distractions.
E) He is just 9 years old
- He wants to be accepted by his peers, so following the current thing is important for him. It's too early for investing time on something that was cool in the past.
F) You might have bought these presents for yourself and not for him
- Many people don't think about the needs of the person they give the present to IMO. They often buy stuff that they think is cool and they would like this person to have and like, which sometimes leads to a disappointment. This might have been the case here as well.
ERGO: you had your own gaming journey and it wasn't special, it was mainstream and your nephew has his own now and it is also in line with the current trends. We don't have much influence on this and need to accept it.
PS about Nintendo, as I see many users brought this up -> it is rare in Poland to treat Nintendo products as a first choice for presents etc. They don't have a branch here still (which is extremely disappointing), games are not translated to Polish and in the past everything was tougher to get. The Switch era changed it a bit, they started to do some little advertising and the products are much easier to get - but it is still not THAT popular. We don't have strong Nintendo nostalgia (most people only know the original NES Super Mario game because of these NES clones in the 90s) and for many Polish men Nintendo is childish and embarrassing. You know what I mean, a manly man shouldn't enjoy a colorful Mario game etc. Of course, this is just ridiculous, but that's the case sometimes.
OMG, I just wrote a really long message to answer here and accidentally closed the tab..................... Ehhh. Unfortunately, when I reopened it was all gone????
Let me try to quickly re-write just the main points, it will be much shorter though (I'm also Polish BTW).
You enjoyed your gaming journey because:
A) You had to achieve everything
- times were different without convenient e-commerce, digital purchases etc.
- Poland was much poorer then and almost no one could afford these gaming systems and games
B) Your gaming journey was mainstream
- everyone had a NES clone back then and started to play PC games later (mostly pirated and stuff from the magazines), that was the trend
The nephew is spoiled/not as invested because:
C) You bought him too much stuff
- if you have a lot, it is tougher to appreciate everything.
- Major changes in Polish society created this situation IMO. The generation of our parents and grandparents were raised in a communist state and they didn't have anything (they weren't even aware that some goods exist). Our generation didn't have much, but wanted more, as commercials and the Internet started to hit in and built the awareness. Current kids now have A LOT, as everyone wants them to have THE CHILDHOOD and the economical situation is better. Polish children receive much more presents nowadays, people have less kids and want them to have the highest possible standard, which leads to spoiling.
D) The attention span is different, shorter
- TikTok, Youtube - all the shows and applications offer quick, flashy entertainment. There are so many distractions.
E) He is just 9 years old
- He wants to be accepted by his peers, so following the current thing is important for him. It's too early for investing time on something that was cool in the past.
F) You might have bought these presents for yourself and not for him
- Many people don't think about the needs of the person they give the present to IMO. They often buy stuff that they think is cool and they would like this person to have and like, which sometimes leads to a disappointment. This might have been the case here as well.
ERGO: you had your own gaming journey and it wasn't special, it was mainstream and your nephew has his own now and it is also in line with the current trends. We don't have much influence on this and need to accept it.
PS about Nintendo, as I see many users brought this up -> it is rare in Poland to treat Nintendo products as a first choice for presents etc. They don't have a branch here still (which is extremely disappointing), games are not translated to Polish and in the past everything was tougher to get. The Switch era changed it a bit, they started to do some little advertising and the products are much easier to get - but it is still not THAT popular. We don't have strong Nintendo nostalgia (most people only know the original NES Super Mario game because of these NES clones in the 90s) and for many Polish men Nintendo is childish and embarrassing. You know what I mean, a manly man shouldn't enjoy a colorful Mario game etc. Of course, this is just ridiculous, but that's the case sometimes.
Everything you said here is ON POINT and exactly how it was/is.
We/parents were poor, so now that Poland is not a communist shithole anymore (still 3x poorer than the west anyway), we overspend and want to get/give anything we couldn't have as kids.
I've got a 9yo nephew who is the gamer kid.
His parents are not interested and doesn't know anything about gaming, so I am his best uncle...
He was always craving to play console and pc alike at my house and I hate kids, so obviously I wanted to introduce him into gaming on his own since his parents don't know anything.
Over the years I've (santa) got him ps3, ps4(year after year basically) and steam deck this last Christmas. I also got him a i5 laptop along the way but not gaming (intel igpu).... I did manage to preinstall like 20 games on there. You know, celeste, stardew valley, cuphead, super meatboy and all the likes I could get from my gog. It's OK for indie games and some more.
The order, year after year was - ps3, ps4, laptop+steam account creation, steam deck.
He enjoys console gaming well enough. He is not into spider-man and other more "real" games but he likes his sponge bobs and raymans etc. He loves astro on ps5 and finished it 2 times at my place... so that kind of games probably.
His fav games on ps3 and ps4 are little big planet games (he's got all of them), rayman games and spelunky 1 and 2. I even got him a custom spelunky(my design!) made hoodie and a cup:
Of course, all for big holidays and after consulting parents. I don't want to spoil the kid against his parents will lol. I am just an uncle after all.
The point is - he is a spoiled little shit lol... maybe? He still is not interested in any actual gaming. He only craves gadgets like psvr now and so on... And he expressed steam gaming interest many times before (hence the steam deck).
My idea behind steam deck was to force him to tinker... you know, to use the brain at least a bit. Sure it's not a huge rgb gaming pc but I am just a fucking uncle, not a money laundering gangster lol.
And it all kinda failed. PS3 is just his littlebig planet machine. nothing else. ps4 is just a rayman and sponge bob machine despite having plenty of games(who cares about spider-man right).
He got plenty of steam games on steam deck. I got him darksiders, red faction guerilla, all valve games and plenty of other stuff on sales. (lol phantom pain is a bit much for a 9yo though)
He kinda understands how to use it and all but nope. He got no interest in learning it any deeper, looses patience INSTANLY, he is not tinkering, setting games and control profiles - nothing. He just uses it to play 5 nights at freddies and terrible clones... these fake horror games for kids you know.
He just got a ps1... He wanted another gadget. He was collecting money for oculus quest but once he got 100$, he got a ps1 with coolboarders and demolition race (wtf)... and of course he kinda just wanted to have it. No real interest in playing it.
I explained him that he can play all ps1 games on steam deck and I will show him how... nope. He loathes the steam deck and he kinda said that he does not like using it.
As for the ps1 - yeah, why not. Cool idea. I explained to him that ps1 games are expensive and is he sure he wants to use his oculus quest savings... I was strongly disagreeing with ps1 purchase but my mom (his grandmother) helped him get it after all. He doesn't understand why he wants it. He does because probably some youtuber got it.
The crux of the issue is - I wanted to awake his curiosity and tinkering skills. Slow start with console games, then laptop, steam deck and so on but I failed. He kinda is a spoiled kid now who doesn't understand what he has. 0 appreciation. He still mainly watches games on youtube or plays these crap piece of shit fake games that kid streamers play.
I think I should've just gotten him A NINTENDO SWITCH instead of all of that. He would've probably been happier with switch+windows laptop. I didn't do that because switch games are super expensive and I know his parents would not be getting him more games... and I felt it would be good to have him learn new things than just play nintendo.
What do you think?
addendum - I was 5 when I got nes(clone but it accepted nes cardridges), then pc when I was 7-8. I think getting into gaming was much easier back then but also required a lot of action from my side. I had my pc and parents gave me allowance each month, with which I got 1 magazine monthly with plenty of demos and full games. I was buying it myself and never had it handed over. Cheap, plenty of demos and full games, plenty of READING, pc required tinkering to get everything to work. + I had all the games I wanted since kids were exchanging discs around the neighborhood. I had everything I needed because I knew what I wanted. no input from parents, uncles, nobody. When asked parents for new GPU, I precisely asked for it.
Now? technically access to games is INFINITELY BETTER AND EASIER. But there are tons of accounts, oversaturation, platforms and a history of games and gaming of last 30 years which kids do not have. Franchises dosn't matter to them. They don't know what games are good, what games are bad and there is infinite amount of stuff to filter. They don't even have magazines with reviews and demo discs to filter it. I think it is super confusing. Kids easily fall into the fake horror games stuff and kids streaming channels with bad games(like imagine if all your gaming knowledge was yt videos of people playing 5 nights at freddies and every clone).
Solution: throw this kid to the garbage bin and adopt me as your new nephew. Make sure I'll appreciate the game hardware, the good games and will know how everything works xDDD
Now seriously: being a 9 years old kid it's normal that he'd like stuff like LBP, Rayman and so on: these games are made to be kids friendly: simple controls, colorful and somewhat cute artstyle, no violence or sex etc. and they are very good.
Other than that, in the same way you (or I) as kids had as reference the magazines and demo disks (plus some friends mostly from school) to discover games and we wanted to play the cool games seen there, he has now the streamers (plus some school friends) as references so he wants to play the 'cool' games he sees there. Which are different than the ones we like/liked when were kids: Five nights at Freddy and similar horror games, Fortnite, Minecraft and so on plus some trendy/viral game from time to time as it was the case of Fall Guys oir Among Us.
In a handful years when starting the adolescence will start to get interested by other types of games played by other youtubers, more action based: stuff like LoL, Valorant, CoD, CS, Apex Legends plus also some game with boobies like some kids friendly waifu game like Genshin Impact.
Back when I was a kid we would get a game console between us (me and my two older brothers) and my parents would almost never let us buy any games at all, precisely because they knew we'd get bored and stop playing them. My dad would take us to the local Blockbuster (wooo nostalgia rush right there) and we'd get to pick one game between us. We had to take it back in three days so we would play the abbbbbbbbbbbsolute shit out of it.
I think that's what your nephew is missing. He has no reason to stick with anything.
Your experience is probably one that a lot of us have in common, but it existed in a moment in time that's never going to return. Modern kids have access to nearly-endless content that is either free or extremely cheap. Games like Among Us are incredibly cheap, can run on damn near anything digital with a screen, and provide hours and hours of entertainment. Fortnite is another example - free, runs on everything, nearly endless "content". Rocket League. There are reasons these games consistently top the list of games popular with kids.
Even in the AA and AAA space, services like Game Pass or PS+ will provide a huge library of things to play on either PC or consoles.
Nowadays, if kids don't like something, they have a lot of choices in what to play next - even if they don't have the latest hardware or whatever. Barring that, I know a lot of youngsters craving variety would rather watch someone else play the game they're interested in on Twitch rather than have to wait to save up to buy it so that they could play it themselves. It's just the world we live in now.
You're a cool uncle, i wish i had one, tho i had a father that bought me any gaming device i ever wanted.
I also gave my nephews, which are a bit younger then yours my PS3 and they seems to like it, will give them my old consoles in the future. You can't really force him to enjoy games tho, i'm like the only one in the family who likes and always liked gaming, so let him enjoy whatever he likes, set him up with free to play games and see what happens.
Perhaps when he's a bit older he will be interested in more complex games.
I think you've done all you can now. Just leave him to it from now on.
Also, his tastes may change as he gets older.
Or , maybe he doesn't get it the way you do.
