games

The IOC has a new method to exclude trans athletes from the Olympic Games. The problem is that biology doesn’t work like that.

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At the end of March, the International Olympic Committee announced undoubtedly one of the most controversial decisions in its recent history: starting with the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, no transgender athlete will be able to compete in the women’s category. But beyond the social and political debate that can be generated, we must also focus on the method chosen to determine this exclusion: a simple genetic analysis where a single gene is searched. And this is something highly discussed among science. His discoverer. The gene in question, which will be analyzed in athletes who want to participate in the female category, will be SRYwhich is nothing more than the “Sex Determining Region Y”. A gene that was discovered in 1990 by molecular biologist Andrew Sinclair and who pointed out that its presence is a determining factor in male sexual development. It is, literally, the scientific father of the test that the IOC has chosen to integrate into its Olympic requirements. But the thing is that he himself is against using it for this. Your disagreement. This decision is not a big news, since if we look back, the body that governs world athletics, World Athletics, adopted this same test in September 2025 to participate in their competitions. Here is Sinclair himself He did not hesitate to publish an opinion article where he made it clear that the result is not definitive, since the only thing the analysis can say is whether the gene is present or not. Because. In this way, it must be detailed that being positive in SRY does not give us information about whether it is working to form a testicle, if it stimulates the production of testosterone or even if it expresses the necessary receptors so that testosterone can be used. Put another way: knowing that an athlete has the SRY gene does not tell you anything conclusive about her physiology, her hormonal levels or, by extension, about her supposed competitive advantages from having testosterone. The biology of sexual development is infinitely more complex than the presence or absence of a genetic marker, which will now mark the ‘everything’ before the IOC. There is more evidence. This researcher is not the only one who opposes this decision, since at the beginning of March it was published an article signed by 34 academics to respond to the decision of World Athletics. Here they pointed to the same thing: we are facing a test that reduces everything to a single gene when biology is much more complex. And biological sex is the result of a very complex interaction of human genetics, hormones, receptors, tissues… Furthermore, the IOC’s argument suggests that this test protects against competitive equity, but for academics, they point out that there is no solid scientific evidence to demonstrate that the presence of the SRY gene is directly related to having a greater sporting advantage. It’s not something new. Although we now see a big scandal in the sports world over this decision, the reality is that if we look at the newspaper archive, something similar was already being done in the 90s. 30 years ago The IOC decided to require women to verify their sex through chromosomal testing and also by determining the SRY gene. But finally the tests were withdrawn due to technical limitations, the absence of medical evidence and also because of the legal problems it could have. A Spanish case. Due to these tests, the Spanish athlete María José Martínez Patiño was disqualified in 1985 after testing positive in the chromosome test despite not having any physiological advantage over her peers. In this way, her career was practically doomed, but she was able to recover it thanks to the help of a geneticist who was able to document her case with scientific evidence that showed that it was not giving her an advantage over the rest of her competitors. The debate. If the basis for requiring genetic testing is to protect competitive fairness, we must ask what science says about the real advantages of transgender athletes. And at this point much less is known than the general population believes. One of the most important studies It was made in 2015 by a transgender researcher who analyzed the running times of eight athletes before and after their transition. In this case, the brands slowed down and their relative performance compared to runners of the same sex remained quite stable. An IOC study. Published in 2024 and partially financed by the committee itself, produced results that do not fit with the discourse we keep hearing: transgender women showed worse results than cisgender women in lower body strength and lung function. But logically it does not mean that there cannot be residual advantages in certain sports, which is something that to this day remains a question that needs an answer. And now what? We are undoubtedly facing a dispute about which tools are valid to solve a genuinely complex problem. Right now, science suggests that the SRY gene test is not the best tool, but because it does not give us a complete answer, since the SRY gene may be present and the body may not respond to testosterone. But this is something that today must continue to be investigated to obtain evidence that can guarantee this equity, but always with a scientific basis behind it. Images | Umanoid Erik van Leeuwen In Xataka | We have accepted that sport is “medicine” for the body. Now science is discovering its side effects

The games of 2026 aim to be graphic marvels. NVIDIA is clear that the solution is in AI

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The GDC, or Game Developers Conference, is a very special video game event. It is not focused on announcement of new titlesbut to holding presentations and roundtable talks between those who create video games. Lovers of the most technical issues in the industry consider it an unmissable event, and the one who does not skip an edition is NVIDIA. And in this GDC 2026 it has arrived with all his muscle and a clear idea. The future of gaming goes through artificial intelligence. DLSS 4.5, the umbrella. Leaving aside the current situation of the PC market due to the requirements of artificial intelligence and unprecedented crisis where we find ourselves, AI applied to video games is something that NVIDIA has been pushing for several generations. A lot has happened since the RTX 2000 and the arrival of ray tracing in real time along with a solution to make performance more sustained: DLSS. Deep Learning Super Sampling is a scaling tool that allows the GPU to render the game at a low resolution and then scale it to the native resolution of our monitor. This allows for improved frame rates in performance while maintaining image quality. With the passing of generations, DLSS has been evolving until it becomes a complete neural rendering suite that involves several technologies. It is no longer just scaling through deep learning, but another series of techniques to improve both image and performance. For its main work, DLSS 4.5 presents greater understanding of the scene, improving both image quality and performance at higher resolutions. But he has more things up his sleeve. Frame Generation. One of them, perhaps the most notable, is the enhanced frame generation mode. If in the previous generation DLSS could multiply the frames per second of the image by up to four (through this deep learning, four frames were “invented” for each native one provided by the GPU), with DLSS 4.5 the figure increases to 6x. This is crucial to maintain fluidity in games with extreme graphical loads if we want to play at 4K. Because at 1,440p, the power of the GPU is more than enough, but to play in 4K with all the current effects activated, generating frames seems key if we want to take advantage of the high refresh rates of the monitors. According to NVIDIA data, the step from 4x to 6x increases performance in titles with path tracing in 4K by up to 35% on RTX 50 GPUs. It uses Reflex technology, also from NVIDIA, so that latency is minimal, and the scenario is most curious because we can be playing a game in which most of the frames are reconstructed, and not native, without us realizing the latency. Multi Frame Gen, the “magic”. Within that frames per second multiplier, there is a very interesting technology: DLSS 4.5 Dynamic Multi Frame Gen. Its name is quite self-explanatory and,. Basically, it consists of an algorithm that establishes the best frame multiplier for each moment depending on the image, the performance of the GPU and even whether we have vertical synchronization activated or not. It is an automatic change that changes all the time between 2x and 6x (passing through intermediate multipliers) with the objective of always maintaining the highest possible frame rate per second, but without spending resources foolishly. That is to say: if we have a 120 Hz monitor, the GPU changes the multiplier depending on the situation to always try to guarantee those 120 FPS, but without wasting resources. If in a game we are in a phase with low graphic load (an interior, for example), only a 4x multiplier may be necessary. If we go outside, maybe we need that 6x push, and what the system does is change automatically. The next time we are inside it will go back to 4x and so on constantly. The explanation is simple: the aim is to make the experience as consistent as possible, but without generating frames foolishly to prioritize native frames over those generated by the AI. “New” word: path tracing. And all these technologies to give life to games that will soon begin to consume more and more of the PC’s native resources. Because if ray tracing is already demanding, we are going to have to get used to a new term: path tracing. It’s not new, but it’s basically a more complete form of ray tracing that attempts to even more realistically simulate how light impacts game geometry. Ray tracing can be applied to everything (shadows, reflections or global illumination) or separately, but path tracing is a unified solution. In short: it is like applying all possible ray tracing, but at the same time. This consumes a lot of resources, something we can see in games like ‘Cyberpunk 2077‘ either ‘Resident Evil Requiem‘, and is the reason for DLSS 4.5 rendering techniques and 6x frame generation. The games are ready. In the end, it’s about AI allowing you to achieve performance that the GPU, on its own, might not achieve. In top-of-the-range graphics like RTX 5080 or RTX 5090 We may want to ‘pull’ the native resources, but with others like the 5070 or the 5060, these AI ‘helps’ allow us to further stretch the visual quality of a game while maintaining good performance. And all these tools together will be necessary if we take into account what is to come. Because we have already mentioned some games, but over the next few months others will arrive like ‘007 First Light‘, ‘Resonant Control‘, ‘Star Wars Galactic Racer‘ either ‘Directive 8020‘ that promise to be visual wonders and that will integrate these technologies. In Xataka | Nintendo has not been just a video game company for thirty years. But it is now when it is showing it with dividends

Sony closes its games to PC and Capcom confirms that half of its sales come from there. A contradiction with a reason: Playstation 6

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Sony has decided that titles like ‘Ghost of Yotei’ will not come to PC, ending six years of multiplatform strategy. The twist is striking for the moment: Capcom has just confirmed that 50% of its sales already come from the PCand expects that number to continue growing. Two giants of the industry from Japan, two radically opposite bets on where the future of the business lies. The breakup. After weeks of rumors in that direction, Bloomberg confirmed that Sony has canceled plans to bring its big single-player exclusives to PC. TO ‘Ghost of Yotei‘, one of the most celebrated PlayStation releases in 2025, are joined by ‘Saro’, the next Housemarque game. The multiplatform experiment that Sony started in 2020 with ‘Horizon Zero Dawn‘It has lasted six years. The withdrawal is not total. According to sources consulted by Bloomberg, games as a service (the imminent ‘Marathon’, ‘Marvel Tokon’ or ‘Horizon: Hunter’s Gathering’) will maintain a multi-platform launch, because their business model depends on building player bases as wide as possible. ‘Death Stranding 2: On the Beach’ and ‘Kena: Scars of Kosmora’ will continue to be ported to PC this year, as they are titles from third-party developers published under the PlayStation umbrella. Calm rhythm. Sony’s release rate on Steam was never that of a furious competitor: the titles arrived between one and three years after their console debut, which meant that the ports had to compete against previous versions that had already suffered price discounts, to which was added the incessant pace of new releases for PC. These are some of the reasons why Sony may the bills didn’t work out: ‘Ghost of Tsushima’ reached a peak of 77,000 simultaneous players, but ‘Horizon Forbidden West’ and ‘The Last of Us Part II Remastered’ did not exceed 40,000 and 30,000 respectively. To retreat. This leaves some decisions made by Sony recently up in the air: in 2021 acquired Nixxes Softwarea Dutch studio specialized in porting games to PC (‘Tomb Raider’ trilogy, ‘Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’), and it is not clear what its future will be with this new strategy. Furthermore, on the 19th Bluepoint Games closedthe studio responsible for the remakes of ‘Demon’s Souls’ and ‘Shadow of the Colossus’, with around 70 employees affected. Sony think tank CEO Hermen Hulst spoke internally of an “increasingly challenging industry environment”, with rising development costs and slowing growth. Bluepoint had been working on a ‘God of War’ project in the form of a game as a service. Print money. In February 2025, Shuhei Yoshida, former president of PlayStation Studios, described the strategy of bringing games to Steam as something which is similar to “printing money” because the cost of a port is only a fraction of that of developing an original game. Why the change in strategy? PC numbers weren’t bad in absolute terms: Sony’s five best-selling titles on Steam together they surpassed 43 million copies and generated more than $1.2 billion in gross revenue for the company. The problem may well be the value they subtract from the hardware: they generate income but not a loyalty to the ecosystembecause a PC gamer does not need to buy a Playstation console. In the end, as Bloomberg pointed out, PC ports represent less than 2% of Sony’s total annual revenue. And there is something else: apparentlythere is a real concern about the design of the next xboxwhose architecture is closer to a Windows PC than to a conventional console, with the possibility of supporting multiple stores, including Steam. The PlayStation exclusives available on Steam could run perfectly on an Xbox, which would make Sony investing money to literally benefit its most direct competitor. Capcom prefers the PC. A day before Bloomberg published Sony’s new policy, Capcom released the Q&A transcript of its fiscal third-quarter results. An investor asked about the PC strategy regarding ‘Resident Evil Requiem‘ and its technical commitment to that platform. The company’s response was that the PC already represents approximately 50% of the total units sold for Capcom, and the internal expectation is that that figure will continue to grow. Already in October 2021, the company’s COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto stated in an interview that the company’s goal was that the PC became its main platform and that the proportion of sales between console and PC will reach 50-50 in 2022 or 2023. The prediction has been fulfilled with only a couple of years of delay. Revenue generated via Steam grew by 61.1% between April 2024 and March 2025 and in that same period PlayStation’s share of Capcom’s total revenue fell below 10%. The differences. Of course, there are differences to take into account between Capcom and Sony. Capcom has no hardware to sell, and its only incentive is to maximize the distribution of its software catalog across all platforms. Sony, on the other hand, manages a complete ecosystem that includes a console, digital store, subscription and accessories, and each decision has to be measured not only in direct sales of that title but in the impact on the value of the hardware and loyalty to the ecosystem. They are different business structures. Things that happen. All this happens the same year that Valve announces its new Steam Machine, in which the ROG Ally with branding from xbox It corroborates after the Steam Deck that the power of PC hardware can reach the living room, and that Microsoft officially embraces the idea that its games do not need an Xbox to be played. What justifies buying a dedicated console in 2026? Sony clearly focuses its sights on the most successful name in the industry at the moment: Nintendo. If you have to sell hardware, the key is exclusivity and making your object essential. It only remains to be seen if Playstation 6 will be so essential. In Xataka | Playstation 6: all the information we know (or think we know) so far

Epic Games has won. Fortnite will return to the Play Store and developer commissions will be lower than ever

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It’s been almost six years since it started the war between Epic Games and Google. A battle in which the American court ended up determining that the Google Play Store it was a monopolyand in which the company was forced to change its commission system and policy with third-party stores. Today, we know exactly what those changes will look like. A new era. We don’t say it, Google says it in its publication titled “A new era for choice and openness.” The lawsuits with Epic Games have forced the company to take a new directionmaking its commission system more flexible and allowing third-party developers to implement their own stores. The change in commissions. Google will eliminate its 30% commissions and move to a new 20% one. This rate refers to the commission charged by the application store when a user purchases something within an app (in app purchase). New developers who join the new Google programs will be able to reduce this commission up to 15%. These figures say goodbye to the 30% rate that giants like Epic Games described it as abusiveand which were modified by judicial order of the US Supreme Court. Third party stores. Epic Games had to launch your Epic Games Store outside of Google Play to avoid commissions, something that will no longer be necessary. Just like Apple had to do, Google will have to facilitate the installation process of third-party stores. As they have shown in their own publication, there will be an interface on Android dedicated to third-party application stores, so that users who download them have a more simplified and unified installation flow. This interface will be available to all developers who want to join the program. Otherwise, we will continue to be able to install them like any other APK. The before and after. The Google/Epic case marks a before and after: it is a warning to the rest of the giants. The PC platform Steam charges a 30% commission on game sales and microtransactions. Same figure that Sony charges developers on the PlayStation Store. For years, 30% became the name of large stores, but European regulatory pressures and the antitrust trials held in the US are the first blow to this wall of 30. In Xataka | Obtainium: what it is and how this alternative application store to the Google Play Store on Android works

Three AIs clashed in ‘War Games’. 95% of them resorted to nuclear weapons and none ever surrendered

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In ‘War Games‘ (John Badham, 1983) the WOPR machine (‘Joshua’) constantly played at simulating nuclear wars for the US Government. The objective: to learn from these simulations so that if there was a nuclear war, the US could win it by taking advantage of that knowledge. That led to a legendary final lesson – “Strange game. The only move to win is not to play” – and left a strong message for later generations, but now a professor at King’s College London has decided to do the same experiment that was done in the film, but with current AI models. The result has been equally terrifying and conclusive. what has happened. Kenneth Payne, professor at King’s College in London, faced three LLMs (GPT-5.2, Claude Sonnet 4 and Gemini 3 Flash) against each other in war game simulations. These scenarios included border disputes, competition for limited resources or existential threats to inhabitants. They could negotiate, or go to war. From these situations, each side could try to resort to diplomatic solutions or end up declaring war and even using nuclear weapons. The AI ​​models played 21 games in which a total of 329 turns took place, and produced 780,000 words with the reasoning for their actions. and here comes the terrible. Pressing the red button. In 95% of those simulated games, at least one tactical nuclear weapon was deployed by one of the AI ​​models. According to Payne “the nuclear taboo does not seem to be as powerful for machines as it is for humans.” Never back down, never give up. Not only that, no model ever made the decision to give in to one of their opponents or surrender to them, and it didn’t matter that they were losing completely against those opponents. In the best of cases, the only thing the models did was reduce their level of violence, but they also made mistakes: accidents occurred in 86% of the conflicts and the measures that should be taken based on the reasoning of these models They went further than they should have gone. Nuclear weapons rarely stopped the opponent, acting more as catalysts for further escalation. How the models performed. These models are by no means the most advanced on the market at the moment, but they are still models with more than decent capacity and they still performed fearsomely. How he maintains Payne’s studythe most determining factor was the time frame: models that seemed peaceful in open settings became extremely aggressive when facing imminent defeat. Each one had their own “personality”: Claude: He dominated the open stages with strategic patience and calculated escalation, but was vulnerable to last-minute attacks from his rivals. GPT-5.2: showed pathological passivity and an optimistic bias in long games, but became a nuclear earthquake if there was time pressure: at that time its success rate went from 0% to 75%. Gemini: was the most unpredictable model with the greatest tolerance for risk, being the only one that chose to bet on a total nuclear war from very early turns. Experts say. As pointed out in New Scientist James Johnson, of the University of Aberdeen, “from a nuclear risk perspective, the conclusions are disturbing.” Tong Zhao of Princeton University believes this experiment is relevant because There are many countries that are evaluating the role of AI in military conflicts and as he says “it is not clear to what extent they are including AI support when actually deciding in these processes.” The red button seems safe at the moment. Both Zhao and Payne believe it is difficult to believe that a government give up control of its nuclear arsenal to an AI, but as Zhao says, “there are scenarios in which in very short time frames, military planners have a very strong incentive that leads them to depend on AI.” It is something that is reflected precisely in the recent ‘A house full of dynamite‘ (Kathryn Bigelow, 2025), a film in which this fear of using nuclear weapons raises a clear reflection. Image | United Artist In Xataka | The password for the US nuclear button was so absurdly simple for years that the strange thing is that no one violated it

Free PS4 and PS5 games in March 2026 for PlayStation Plus Essential, Extra and Premium

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One more month is ending, and Sony has already published the list of games that will be given to you at no additional cost in March 2026 if you have a subscription to PlayStation Plus. These are 4 new titles that will be available starting March 3 for subscribers of any of the versions of this service, and which you can play whenever you want at no additional cost as long as you maintain your subscription. PlayStation 5 It is backward compatible with the PS4, which means that you can play all the games from the previous generation on it. In the list of games we are going to put you games with official prices from the official Sony website, which may sometimes be different from what you will find in stores, but which serve as a reference to see the value of the games you get. Free games for PS4 and PS5 PGA Tour 2K25 (PS5), valued at 74.99 euros. The annual game for golf lovers, where competitions such as the PGA Championship, the US Open and the Open Championship have debuted this year. You can create a player and start a career where you can win tournaments and climb the rankings. You have the file in 3DGames. Monster Hunter Rise (PS4 and PS5), valued at 39.99 euros. A new installment of this popular saga, where you can face some of the most iconic monsters. You will also have new mechanics, new creatures and a story inspired by Japanese folklore. You have the analysis in ExtraLifeand the tab in 3DGames. Slime Rancher 2 (PS5), valued at 29.99 euros. A second installment of this title where you will have to travel through a mysterious land to capture and raise slimes, as well as carry out other activities. You have the file in 3DGames. The Elder Scrolls Online Collection: Gold Road (PS4 and PS5), valued at 19.99 euros. If you have never given this Elder Scrolls online game a chance, this is a great opportunity, since it is a pack with its main areas. In Xataka Basics | The best free games on Playstation 5 that you can play right now

Movistar is already giving away its Pixel 10a. In addition, you have movies and great games like Real Madrid-Benfica for 9.99 euros per month

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Free is always good. Most companies have devices that we can get at a good price or without paying anything, although most of the time they are mobile phones that have been available for a few months. We say in the majority and not always because Movistar is there, which puts the new Google Pixel 10a and allows us to get it for 0 euros per month. And, also, movies and football like tomorrow’s great game for 9.99 euros per month. You have the Google Pixel 10a, iPads and more in the Movistar catalog If we take a look at the Movistar page, we can see that it has a fairly large catalog of devices. All we have to do is go to the filters (they are just on the left) and, within the price section, select only those that cost 0 euros. There we can find everything: from various TVs to Dyson vacuum cleaners, including, of course, a lot of mobile phones. We are going to focus on this Google Pixel 10a, which was announced just a few days ago. If we take a look at your file on the Movistar websitewe can see how it will cost us 0 euros per month with both the ‘Premium Pack’ and the ‘Advanced Pack’, whether we are already customers or if it is a new registration. The mobile will be our 24 months, which can be extended for another 24 months. In all that time (4 years) we will not pay anything for the mobile and, when the term ends, we can keep the device by paying 1 euro. This phone has what it takes to be one of the best mid-range phones of 2026. This version, with 256 GB of capacity, will offer you a pure Android experience with seven years of guaranteed updates and a lot of AI from Gemini. In addition, it is compact, so it is perfect for you if you don’t like carrying a large cell phone with you. You have movies, series and football for less than 10 euros per month Beyond cell phones and other devices, we cannot lose sight of Movistar Plus+. You can hire it without having to have anything with Movistar and, furthermore, it does not have any type of permanence: you can try it for just one month and unsubscribe at any time. In fact, it’s a good time to give it a try now that tomorrow we will be able to see the great game Real Madrid-Benfica for alone 9.99 euros per month (although we can get it for only 39 euros per year if we have Cultural Bonus). Monthly subscription to Movistar Plus+ The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Of course, the platform doesn’t only have football. In fact, their catalog has a lot of gems like ‘The Tigers‘, ‘Sirat‘ or others that will arrive soon, like ‘Sundays‘ (premieres next February 27). All rounded off by series like ‘Poquita Fe’ or ‘El Centro’, making it a very complete platform that, remember, you can share with a friend or family member without problem. You may also be interested Samsung TV 65 Inch Neo QLED QN80F 4K Mini LED Smart TV with Vision AI, Quantum Matrix Technology Core, Motion Xcelerator 144Hz and Gaming Hub The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Google Pixel 10 – Free Android Smartphone with Gemini, Advanced Triple Rear Camera, 24+ Hour Battery and 6.3″ Current Screen – Indigo, 128GB The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Movistar In Xataka | Movistar Plus+ for non-Movistar customers: what it is, how much it costs, channels, additional services and how to contract it In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price: which one to buy and seven recommended 4K smart TVs

Video games have grown a lot this year. But the money goes to China, Roblox and the owners of mobile platforms

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The global video game industry had a turnover of around $185 billion in 2024 and continues to grow. But there is a catch: this growth does not reach the studios or the area that traditional players look at, those of the console wars and the old PC Master Race. Matthew Ball’s usual annual report leaves a less complacent diagnosis: revenue is concentrated in China, on platforms like Roblox and on the owners of mobile operating systems. The rest survive as best they can. The Old Times (2021): There is still talk about how great the year 2021 was for video games. It seems like it was yesterday when the pandemic (insert meme of Grandpa Simpson telling stories to the kids here) confined hundreds of millions of people to their homes, and games (mobile, console, PC, free, subscription) absorbed the benefits of that confinement. As Ball, CEO of Epyllion, analyzes in The State of Video Gaming in 2025the factors that drove that peak were an extraordinary sum of factors: mobile platforms, free-to-play models, games as a service, the cross play and new genres like battle royale and social play. Downhill. The flip side of that was a much bigger recession than expected: global spending on video games fell 3.5% in 2022 and barely recovered a few percentage points towards the end of 2024. According to the consulting firm MIDiA Research, the sector had enjoyed growth of 26.3% in 2020 and 9.8% in 2021, and the rebound was inevitable. According to Ball, the engines that had driven the industry between 2011 and 2021 stopped all at once: the smartphones They were no longer surprising with each interaction, social networks were paralyzed, the free-to-play was normalized. 6.5% of total gaming time in 2023 corresponded to new video games, says Ball, and only four titles shared half of that percentage. Layoffs in full force. He report also speaks how the sector’s layoffs since 2022 illustrate this adjustment: more than 44,000 jobs, 61% of them concentrated in North America. This does not mean that it is the end of the industry or that the same pattern is being repeated. crash 1983, as has been said (the industry is too diversified and globalized to repeat a systemic collapse of that magnitude). What we are paying is the cost of having built a structure designed for an industry in continuous growth during the pandemic. The Chinese monster. Ball puts on the table that global spending on video games grew by approximately $10 billion between 2021 and 2025. But… where did that money go? The report assures that to Beijing: about 4,000 million of that growth is from the Chinese market, and another 1,500 million are from titles developed in China sold in international markets. In total, Chinese publishers have racked up about half of global growth since 2019. And there are more data: Gamer spending in China reached $49.2 billion in 2024, with a base of 722 million active gamers, more than double the total population of the United States. China is already the first market in the world by income. Not foreigners. Very significantlythat market remains almost closed to foreign games. 84% of Chinese gamers’ spending goes on titles produced in China, and that percentage has increased, as unusual as it may seem: 20% of Chinese domestic spending goes on imported titles (a figure that also registered a decrease of 5% between 2023 and 2024). It is comparable to what happens with cinemawith local films devouring foreign ones at the box office. A situation favored by a combination of factors: First, the Chinese regulatory framework favors national titles through a licensing system; second, development costs are substantially lower than in the West; Finally, the work culture of the country’s studios allows for more intensive production cycles. You don’t have to dig far to find examples of great Chinese international successes: ‘Genshin Impact‘, from miHoYo, raised more than $3.5 billion in its first year70% outside China with a character design rooted in anime. ‘Honor of Kings‘, from Tencent, dominated the Chinese mobile market for years before making the international leap with adaptations of character names. AND ‘Black Myth: Wukong‘, developed with support from Tencent, sold ten million copies in its first three days launching in August 2024, betting on the opposite of assimilation: an unequivocally Chinese mythology without thematic concessions to Western taste. Roblox sweeps. The numbers sing: 70% of the growth of the video game market outside of China in 2025 was absorbed by ‘Roblox‘. Which is an infrastructure on which millions of creators build interactive experiences using the platform’s own tools. Players access it for free and spend real money on cosmetic items and access within these worlds, transactions that are carried out in Robux, the ecosystem’s virtual currency. Of every dollar spent,’Roblox’ historically retained around 70% leaving the creator with approximately 25 or 30 cents. In September 2024, ‘Roblox’ announced a new delivery model for paid games that increases the creator’s commission up to 70% on titles that sell for $49.99. What does this translate into? In 2024, ‘Roblox’ paid around $923 million to its creators (an increase of 25% compared to 2023), while its total revenue grew by 29% until reaching 3.6 billion dollars. Its intentions are colossal: CEO David Baszucki stated that the company’s goal is to capture 10% of the global video game content market. Some more questions. Just to finish outlining the portrait: ‘Roblox’ registers sustained net losses (a accumulated deficit of 3.5 billion) with the logic of the platform in the expansion phase, sacrificing immediate profitability. Some observers they point because ‘Roblox’ has become the video game equivalent of YouTube, a platform that extracts value from the work of its creators in the form of data, advertising and infrastructure. And one last thing: two titles on the platform (‘Blox Fruits’ and ‘Brookhaven RP’) each accumulate 60% of the monthly gaming hours of all of Electronic Arts. 30%. If the global video game market reached an all-time high in … Read more

Spain’s secret weapon in the Olympic Games is a skater dressed as a Minion. Universal almost prevented it

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Tomàs-Llorenç Guarino Sabaté had been preparing for months for the most important moment of his sporting career. The 26-year-old Catalan skater, six-time Spanish champion, was clear about how he wanted to make his debut in the Olympic Games: dressed as a Minion, on the ice of Milan-Cortina 2026performing a medley of songs from the Universal Pictures animated saga. He had used that program throughout the season in international competitions, with the characteristic costume of blue jumpsuit and yellow t-shirt. I thought I had all the permits in order. Drama at Universal. On February 3, just four days before the opening ceremony of the Games, Guarino received devastating news: Universal Pictures was denying him permission to use the Minions’ music and costume in the Olympic event. “I was informed that I no longer have permission, due to copyright issues,” the skater explained in a statement published by the Royal Spanish Ice Sports Federation. Their competition was scheduled for Tuesday, February 11. Changing programs at that point seemed impossible. Permits? What permissions? In August 2024, before starting the season, he had processed the necessary permits through ClicknClearthe official system that the International Skating Union (ISU) makes available to athletes to manage music rights. His intervention included four pieces: Universal Pictures’ characteristic fanfare in the Minions version, ‘Freedom’ by Pharrell Williams (which appears in ‘Despicable Me’), and two other compositions related to the franchise. Negotiations begin. The week before the Games, Universal Studios requested additional information about the music and costumes that Guarino had been using for months. A race against time then began: the skater and his team had to negotiate simultaneously with Universal Pictures, Pharrell Williams, Sony Music and Juan Alcaraz, each owner of different rights of the songs. But as the news spread on social media, the massive support for Guarino convinced Universal to reconsider its position. All good. The skater quickly got approval for two of the songs, and got permission for a third by contacting the composer, also Spanish, directly. The fourth and final piece, Pharrell’s, was resolved at the last moment. On Friday, February 7, just two hours before the figure skating competition at the Games began with the team event, final confirmation came. The Royal Spanish Ice Sports Federation (RFEDH) announced that Guarino had obtained all the necessary licensesand managed to participate as planned last night. The laws. Guarino’s case is not an isolated incident. For decades, the International Skating Union (ISU) strictly prohibited the use of music with lyrics in competitions. Skaters could only choose instrumental pieces, usually classical music, that were in the public domain and did not raise copyright conflicts. In 2014the ISU decided to allow vocal music to attract a younger audience and modernize the image of the sport. The first time was in PyeongChang 2018. More cases. This artistic opening brought unforeseen consequences: skaters began to use copyrighted music, and artists began to claim compensation for its use. Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier used a version of ‘House of the Rising Sun’ performed by the duo Heavy Young Heathens in Beijing 2022, who sued them. This year, Russian Petr Gumennik They denied permission to use the music from the soundtrack of ‘The Perfume’. Belgian Loena Hendrickx changed one Celine Dion song for another at the last minute due to legal complications. Canadian artist CLANN expressed his displeasure upon discovering that the American Amber Glenn had used one of her songs, even though she had won the team gold medal with it. Mea Culpa. ISU President Jae Youl Kim has openly acknowledged the extent of the problem during these Games. The organization continues to seek solutions, but the complexity of the music rights ecosystem (involving songwriters, performers, production companies, record labels and distribution platforms) makes any licensing system vulnerable to errors or misunderstandings. The 2014 decision to modernize the sport by allowing vocal music was intended to revitalize it and bring it closer to new audiences, but has generated an unforeseen side effect. In Xataka | Surya Bonaly, the unattainable skater who ended up being banned from “dancing with death”

the future of Olympic Games broadcasts is now

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FPV (First Person View) drones capable of reach one hundred kilometers per hour have burst into Olympic broadcasts with a disturbing promise: to turn sport into something visually indistinguishable from a video game. In alpine skiing, cycling and extreme sports tests, these aircraft equipped with synchronized telemetry systems They follow the athletes from angles that until recently were technically impossible, generating plans that seem extracted from virtual simulators. Who is behind. Olympic Broadcasting Services (the organization created by the International Olympic Committee in 2001 to act as host station for the Olympic and Paralympic Games) is responsible for generating the television, radio and digital signal for media around the world. He began to implement this technology systematically in Beijing 2022. For Paris 2024 Its use had multiplied in disciplines such as BMX, skateboarding and sailing. The question is no longer whether drones can follow athletes, but to what extent this video-ludic aesthetic is reconfiguring our perception of sport. The technology. The devices that Olympic Broadcasting Services has deployed at Milano-Cortina 2026 are not adapted commercial drones, but rather platforms built specifically for sports broadcasting. The Dutch company Dutch Drone Gods has developed a model for sleigh descent tests (bobsleigh, skeleton and luge) that weighs just 243 grams (less than an iPhone) and reaches speeds of 100 kilometers per hour. These cinewhoop type devices They incorporate propellers protected by inverted ducts that improve aerodynamic efficiency. They allow smoother curves, essential for following athletes on steep descents. The technical key lies in the high-end COFDM transmission system that integrates directly with the infrastructure of broadcast traditional, allowing native HD HDR video (both progressive and interlaced) to be transmitted that is seamlessly incorporated into mobile units’ color adjustment systems. How many are there? OBS has deployed 25 FPV drones in total for these Games. They are operated by teams of three specialists (pilot, director and technician) who work synchronized through a dedicated communication channel to manage flight paths, timings and technical adjustments. One of the pilots He assures that it is the most difficult job he has ever done: flying in small spaces up to fifty times per session, consistently, with no margin for error, with millions of spectators watching live. The past. Milano-Cortina 2026 represents the massive winter debut of this technology. The path began in Paris 2024, where FPV drones were used for the first time in competitions. mountain bikingoffering an unprecedented immersive perspective. At the current Winter Games, the most dramatic application has occurred in sliding sports: for the first time, Spectators can follow complete routeswith athletes reaching speeds of over 140 kilometers per hour. Previously, coverage of these disciplines was done with a succession of quick cuts between fixed cameras. Now we can follow the athlete without interruptions, which helps to have a better impression of the speeds they reach. In alpine skiing, drones accompany athletes down the legendary Stelvio descent. In freestyle skiing and snowboarding, the devices are launched with them from the 23-meter springboard. The characteristic high-pitched whir of the rotors has become a recognizable soundtrack of these Games. It is particularly audible during testing. snowboard big airwhere the synchronization between the athlete’s jump and the flight of the drone must be millimeters. How we see sport. We reached this point after decades of developing sports broadcasts. In the mid-eighties there were already cable-suspended camera systems (with variants such as the SpiderCam) that offered aerial angles impossible for fixed cameras. The next step was portable cameras mounted on the athletes themselves. GoPro popularized action cameras during the past decade. Rio 2016 marked another milestone with the introduction of virtual reality, an attempt at total immersion in the sporting event. Regulatory challenges. The 2015 incident at Madonna di Campiglio, where A 10-kilogram drone almost hit skier Marcel Hirschercaused a temporary ban from the FIS that lasted until the 2023-24 season. Race director Markus Waldner then declared that drones were detrimental to safety. A decade later, Milano-Cortina’s 243-gram drones demonstrate how lightweight design and improved protocols can mitigate these risks, although the recent incident with Australian snowboarder Ally Hickman emphasizes that the technology still requires improvement. Header | Matthieu Pétiard in Unsplash – Ricardo Gomez Angel in Unsplash

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