games

Five board games that you can’t miss to have fun this New Year’s Eve with friends and family

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Christmas is a time when we tend to get together much more with friends and family, and not only on the two specific dates such as Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. If you want to have a fun time on Christmas evenings (especially this New Year’s Eve), count on a good assortment of board games will make a difference. We present five totally essential options that you cannot miss at home. Exploding Kittens In the corner intended for board games at home, one of the ones that cannot be missing is Exploding Kittens. This has managed to achieve the achievement of being the most supported game (in all history) in Kickstarter. One of the main reasons for the success of this game is that it allows you to play quick games of about 15 minutes and from 2 to 5 players. The objective is simple: build your own deck of cards while avoiding the explosion of any of the protagonist kitties. Asmodee Exploding Kittens, Game for children and adults from 7 years old The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Throw Throw Burrito Another game that has already had some success at gatherings with friends and family is Throw Throw Burrito. It is for ages 7 and up and the games (like the previous one) are quick (about 15 minutes) and between 2 to 4 players. It’s a board game very simple to play: you will get points with the cards you win, but you will lose them if you get hit by the soft burritos, which are the protagonists of the game. This game is created by the same authors as Exploding Kittens. Exploding Kittens Throw Throw Burrito The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Catan One of the essential board games if you like classic strategy games is Catan. It is designed for three or four players and the games last between 45 minutes and an hour. This is a game for bring out your negotiating streak. From Catan, it can be noted that you will never play two identical games. Likewise, you can buy separately a good number of expansionswith which to give greater depth to the game and have new gameplay options. Devir – Catan, Board Game The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza On any Christmas evening with children, I personally recommend Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza; a very simple gamebut with which fun and laughter are more than guaranteed. Created by Lupilo, it is perfect for players from 8 years old and the games can be played up to a maximum of eight players. The mechanics are simple and when the card matches the word it says, the last one to put their hand on the central amount wins the pile. The games are also quick, about 10 minutes. Ludilo – Taco Gato Goat Cheese Pizza | Board Games The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Trivial Pursuit The last of the board games that we believe are essential in any home is Trivial Pursuit in your classic version. Above all, it is a perfect option to have fun while learning about different categories. Of course, you should know that it is a game suitable for those over 16 years of age, although there are also editions for children and with specific themes, such as harry potterFor example. The objective of the game is simple: go around the board and answer the questions correctly. six categories (entertainment, geography, science and nature, sports, art and literature, history and hobbies) and get a cheese of each color or category to be declared the winner. Hasbro Gaming Trivial Pursuit (in Spanish) 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 | Exploding Kittens, Hasbro, In Xataka | The 41 Best Board Games: From ‘Catan’ to ‘Gloomhaven’ In Xataka | These are the board games that are never missing in my suitcase when I go on vacation with my partner

This console that no one knows about and is full of strange games with motion control has sold more than Xbox

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The toy that no one saw coming ended up becoming the unexpected phenomenon of Black Friday 2025. At the end of November and facing the Christmas campaign, a practically unknown console surpassed Xbox in sales and was positioned as the third best-selling hardware in the country, only behind PlayStation 5 and nintendo switch 2. What is it. Is called Nex Playgrounda motion-controlled gaming console made by a Silicon Valley startup that, until recently, was developing artificial intelligence applications to extract basketball scoring statistics. The product didn’t even appear on the industry’s radars until the data analysis firm Circana revealedafter studying console sales figures in recent weeks, which had accumulated 14% of total hardware sales during the most competitive period of the American commercial year. How it works. Its interior houses an 8-core ARM processor, 64 GB of storage and a wide-angle camera that constitutes the heart of the system. The tracking technology detects 18 points on the human body in real time using artificial intelligence algorithms that They process everything locallywithout sending data to the cloud. Some critics they have praised its design and motion tracking capabilities, but questioned the limited library of games and the subscription pricing scheme under which it operates. How much does it cost. Its entry price is $249, and includes five pre-installed games, such as ‘Fruit Ninja’. He full access to the catalog requires purchasing the Play Pass, at $89 annually or $49 quarterly. Still, the total cost of $338 would still be significantly below traditional consoles. The console deliberately aims at an audience other than the gamer traditional: families with young children looking for physical activity disguised as digital entertainment. The sales curve. PlayStation 5 led the market last Black Friday and surrounding dates, with a 47% market share. Switch 2 scored 24%, relegating Xbox to fourth position with less than 14% remaining, according to official data from Circana Retail Tracking Service. Nex’s sales trajectory draws a curve that defies any algorithmic prediction: in 2022, the company barely shipped 5,000 units of its console. The following year, that figure multiplied by thirty to reach 150,000 units. By 2024, the projection points to 600,000 systems sold. The evolution of Nex. The most radical transformation of Nex, the company behind Nex Playground, was not only technological, but also identity-based. The company was born in 2017, founded by a group of former Apple, Google and Facebook engineers led by David Lee. Its first app, ‘HomeCourt’, from July 2018, featured cutting-edge technology applied to a very specific market: basketball players, amateur or not, who wanted to analyze performance metrics. In July 2019 they signed a shareholding with NBA and they started to grow receive recognition. The pandemic and the closure of gyms revealed a fact that had gone unnoticed: people I downloaded the app to access minigames They were practically hidden. In 2021, Nex launched ‘Active Arcade’, a free app with 13 body movement mini-games, and they got more downloads in their first month than ‘HomeCourt’ in its entire history. In December 2023, they launched this Nex Playground, which physically materialized everything they had learned up to that point, seeking a family audience more than expert athletes. Agreements have been signed with brands such as Bluey, Peppa Pig, Barbie and the Ninja Turtles, and project more than $150 million in sales this year. In Xataka | Microsoft is killing Xbox for Excel

dates, information and everything we expect from the games they are going to give away

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As is customary on these dates, Epic Games is going to make its traditional advent calendar giving away games in your digital store. We are not going to know the games they are going to give away each day until the time comes to reveal them, nor the dates or the number of games, but we can get an idea taking into account what they did in previous years. Therefore, what we are going to do is tell you the first games already announced, and then we are going to take a look at what they have done in previous years to tell you what we expect this Christmas. These assumptions are the logical ones if nothing radically changes, but keep in mind that we won’t know until the time comes either. What are these Christmas offers? The Epic Games Store is one of the largest digital video game stores along with Steam. And every year around this time they usually make a kind of advent calendar, in which every day they give away a new game. To be precise, first they give away a bomb of game for a week, and then they start with the daily drip. Sometimes they can be important games, the so-called AAA, and other days they will be more independent or lesser-known games. But in any case, they will once again get us to enter their store every day to see the Christmas sales, and while you buy a free game, you may pay for another discounted one. Dates of the games that Epic Games gives away For now, Epic Games has only revealed the first of the games that he is going to give awaywhich will be available for a week. But the important thing is that it also sets a date for when to give the next one. This is important because, if they repeat the tactics of other yearsthe normal thing is that from that next game they start giving away one a day. Last year the daily games were extended until January 2, and then they put on another one for a whole week. These are the dates we know: December 12 at 2:00 (Spanish peninsular time) – Hogwarts Legacy December 18 at 5:00 p.m. (Spanish peninsular time) – New game From here on, the normal thing is that every day of the week give away a new game starting at 5:00 p.m. Spanish peninsular time. If Epic Games later specifies and confirms the gift schedule, we will update this article to tell you. In Xataka Basics | Amazon Luna free with Amazon Prime: what it is, what games you have access to, and how to get more titles

“Cozy games” were going to save us from stress and productivity. They have ended up being true slaves of leisure

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The promise of relaxing and clearing your mind for a few hours is what attracts us of the cozy games: those games that surround us with cute little animals, calm us with a comforting visual palette and give us repetitive and friendly tasks that make us escape from stress. It all seems very bucolic; You inherit a farm, plant flowers, decorate rooms or make dream furniture, with the promise of escaping for a few hours from the daily routine. However, that kind of digital refuge has become the materialization of what you wanted to escape from; in a second Google Calendar full of meetings, in a clone of your 9 to 5 job. And ‘Tiny Bookshop’ reaffirms it to us. Released this summer,’Tiny Bookshop‘ quickly became a hit within the crowded category cozy. The premise is clear: you arrive in a small, charming town with your new traveling bookstore project, which you can decorate with hundreds of possibilities. Through your relationship with the neighbors you manage to sell and recommend a large number of books and, in turn, discover all the secrets of the town. This entire initial point is more than striking for fans of the genre (like yours truly). After more hours than I would like to admit, I realized that I had fallen into the gaming trap again. cozy: dedicate hours and hours at a job. Underneath the adorableness of being able to paint everything in pastel tones or recommend ‘Jane Eyre’ to your clients, in the end you find that you have been searching for objects for a while to increase your sales, check the opening hours for the next day and be on the lookout to replenish the shelves with the right genre. You can call this cozybut I call it emulating another workday; and what’s worse, enjoying it. Recommend all kinds of books at ‘Tiny Bookshop’ At the beginning of the 2010s it became quite fashionable, sponsored by the gurus of Silicon Valleya trend called “gamification of work“Through video game or board game mechanics, missions, points or rewards were added within the daily routine of monotonous work tasks. It is worth asking if the cozy games They have done the opposite path, “trafficking” video games. It is true that, as is often the case with these cozy gamesit’s easy to have fun with them and immerse yourself fully in the story. The interactions are adorable, the characters are cute and they have that air of “afternoon movie” that makes them irresistible; but in the end we cannot ignore the fact that we are replicating tasks that we are supposed to escape from, such as spending hours and hours working. And yes, it all depends on the type of player you are and how you manage the objectives of the game, but the cozy games They rarely have to do with something comfortable or warm. We’ve romanticized even paying a mortgage We are not talking about a specific thing that happens with this new release, completing or performing the daily tasks of this style of games can be the least relaxing thing there is. With the pinnacle of the cozy‘stardew valley‘, the day doesn’t last long between milking the cows, collecting the eggs, making jam and going to the mine to get objects. Furthermore, as if it were real life itself, after all these tasks, you have to put on a good face and interact with your neighbors. Something similar happens with another of the big names in the category such as ‘Animal Crossing‘: you have to give objects to your island companions, cut down trees, plant flowers, fish and be attentive to the day the character who is in charge of buying your collection arrives, in order to get money and pay the mortgage. Yes, a mortgage on a beautiful house, but Tom Nook does not forgive the deadlines. After all this, it would be interesting to check the players’ heart rate when their character goes to sleep after completing all those tasks. Spend the day cutting down trees in ‘Animal Crossing’ By becoming something more mainstream and produce some sales more than substantial Since its rise in the pandemic, there are countless games that adopt the “cozy” to capture the public, even when its dynamics move away from what characterizes the genre. It is worth asking if within this label, the greatest exponents should not be games like ‘Abzu‘ either ‘Unpacking‘, where the “you don’t have to do anything” is strictly followed and the objectives do not have a timer. The contemplative and the mechanical is what is essential in these examples, honoring that part “cozy” of mental refuge with peace, serenity and tasks that are repeated over and over again. In fact, there is even metacriticism within this world. ‘Wanderstop‘, a tea shop simulator created by the visionary mind behind ‘The Stanley Parable‘, Davey Wreden. The game ironizes this fact with a character who invites you to attend to customer requests when it seems right to you, without rushing, because the last thing the protagonist needs is it’s more pressure. It is curious that most games cozy They deal with mental health or anxiety, but some have mechanics in line with this and others offer ones that are radically opposite to the feelings they seek to create in the player. The perversion of language, or the excessive use of a label such as “cozy” to sell more copies ends up producing a very specific reality: something is broken when the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about these comforting games is taking care of a farm or a supermarket, watering parsnips or paying for an extension to your house. Productivity as leisure Beyond the mechanics and quality of each of them, the addiction and fanaticism that they generate for us does nothing more than put ourselves in front of the mirror and expose the reality of our daily life: even with our leisure we want to be productive, … Read more

We know that role-playing video games were born 50 years ago. What we don’t know exactly is which game was the first

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If when they ask you about the first role-playing video game in history, a legendary franchise will undoubtedly come to mind: ‘Dungeons & Dragons‘. The influence of the then newborn board role-playing game was undeniable in the first titles of the genre, but to determine a foundational touchstone we have a serious problem: there are several candidates. The first roles. In 1975, half a century agothe genre of role-playing video games as we know it was born. Just one year after Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson will publish ‘Dungeons & Dragons‘, different American university students They transferred the board game experience to computer systems of the time (huge mainframes or data systems), creating titles like ‘dnd’, ‘pedit5’ and ‘Dungeon’. Those experiments laid the foundations for the industry along with early icons like ‘Spacewar’, but determining which came first is not so easy. Why D&D. Dungeons & Dragons It sold 3,000 copies during its first year.a modest figure but behind which there is a great cultural impact among university students. Some of the concepts that ‘D&D’ introduced in early role-playing games (life points, accumulating experience, progression by levels, character classes, dice system – that is, chance – to resolve combat…) were of a statistical nature. It was ideal to be processed by computerswho calculated probabilities faster than any human game master. The convergence was inevitable: American campuses brought together both programmers with access to computers and players obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons. Sometimes it was the same people. What was PLATO. This proto-internet served as the basis for many of these games to spread: its acronym is equivalent to Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations, it was developed at the University of Illinois in 1960, and was born as an educational tool, although it ended up going far beyond that initial purpose. Towards the mid-seventies This network connected approximately a dozen mainframes with several thousand terminals distributed globally. The system incorporated revolutionary technologies for the time: plasma screens with a resolution of 512×512 pixels, interfaces 16×16 touch points and transmission speed of 1,200 bits per second. But his true legacy was to become a precursor to the Internet by including discussion forums, email, chat rooms and, at a certain point in its history, real-time multiplayer video games. In this way, and as it could not be otherwise, the university students subverted the initially academic purpose of PLATO: the programmers disguised their games with names that pretended to be educational files to avoid being detected and deleted by university administrators (hence the cryptic titles, almost based on acronyms, of some games). The pioneer dungeon. In this way, and thanks to the possibilities that PLATO offered, during 1975 several programmers worked without knowing each other on the creation of the first RPG for computer. Rusty Rutherford, a 35-year-old doctoral student at the University of Illinois, developed ‘pedit5‘ (also called ‘The Dungeon’). The game featured a fixed 40-50 room dungeon with random monster and treasure encounters, establishing the concept of the “dungeon crawl”. The character combined the three classic ‘D&D’ classes: warrior, wizard and cleric. Players generated attributes such as Strength, Dexterity, Constitution and Intelligence, and had eight different spells at their disposal. The random nature of the encounters made it a direct precursor of the roguelike. The game could only hold 20 simultaneous characters, a limit that became a problem when its popularity exploded. The first final boss in history. Southern Illinois University students Gary Whisenhunt and Ray Wood completed ‘dnd‘ (‘The Game of Dungeons’) after ‘pedit5’ demonstrated the viability of the concept. ‘dnd’ expanded its offering with multiple dungeon levels, a teleporter system, and allowed players to leave the dungeon, recover, and return later, gradually accumulating power over multiple sessions. Its big innovation was a scoring system inspired by pinball machines, which made players collect gold and leave. The solution was to create an ultimate goal, the Orb, guarded by a dragon in the deepest levels. Thus, it was the first video game to feature a “boss fight”, a final climatic encounter. Technical sophistication. In California, meanwhile, Don Daglow was programming his own game, Dungeonfor him mainframe PDP-10 from Claremont University. Daglow implemented sophisticated mechanics: line of sight, fog of war, automapping, and NPCs with rudimentary artificial intelligence. The game required 36K of RAM, a very notable amount at the time. Finally, on November 4, 1975, John Daleske, Gary Fritz and their team released a second game called ‘Dungeon’ on PLATO, considered as one of the first MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons). That same year ‘Moria’ also appeared, by Kevet Duncombe and Jim Battin, allowing up to ten simultaneous players in the same game, which is a direct precedent for future MMORPGs. In Xataka | Virtual dungeons: The successes and failures of bringing ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ to video games

Google and Epic Games propose a historic agreement that is an earthquake for the Play Store

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The long and costly legal war between Epic Games and Googlewhich began in 2020, is about to end. Both companies have jointly submitted an agreement proposal and a modified court order which, if approved, not only resolves all its disputes, but also redraws the rules of the Android app store for the coming years. Chronology. To understand why Google has agreed, you have to rewind. After a long trial, a jury ruled in favor of Epic in 2023, declaring that Google’s Play Store operated as an illegal monopoly. Based on that verdict, Judge Donato issued a harsh court order a year later. This forced Google to open its ecosystem and included allowing third-party stores within the Play Store itself. In addition, it prohibited Google from tying its billing system to the store, and allowing developers to link to external payments. Braking attempt. Google immediately appealed, warning that the changes would harm the “security and privacy” of users. On October 18, 2024, the judge granted the Mountain View giant a temporary suspension while the appeal was being resolved. It was just a momentary respite. Surrender. After losing appeals, the US Supreme Court rejected Google’s latest request for a suspension. This reactivated the original court ordergiving the company an imminent deadline that ended on October 22. It had to start dismantling its control over the Android software store. Image by Official GDC on Flickr New agreement. Faced with the obligation to comply with a sentence that it hated, Google has negotiated a lesser evil. This new agreement, which was presented yesterday, replaces the original order with agreed rules that will be in force until June 30, 2032. Tim Sweeney himself, CEO of Epic, rated it X as an “impressive” and “comprehensive solution.” These were the words of Sameer Samat, the president of Android, who also reacted to the news: Together with Epic Games, we have proposed changes for Android and Google Play that focus on expanding developer choice and flexibility, reducing fees, and encouraging greater competition, all while ensuring user safety. If approved, this would resolve our disputes. We hope to continue discussing the issue with the judge on Thursday. The agreement details a new maximum commission structure. Google will not be able to charge more than 20% for in-game purchases that offer advantages (such as loot boxes or improvements). For everything else, the maximum commission will be 9%. On the other hand, the developers they win the right to display their own payment systems with Play Billing. Additionally, they will be able to show different (i.e. cheaper) prices if the user chooses the alternative payment. However, the Big Tech will continue to charge your “service fee”– Even if a developer uses its payment platform, Google reserves the right to charge the service fee (the 20% or 9% mentioned). According to media such as The Vergea Google spokesperson clarified that the developer saves the billing fee (cost of processing the payment), but not the service fee. Global impact. Although the court order is limited to the US, this change to the Android operating system will have a global impact. This opens the door for third-party stores—such as the one that Epic announced with Telefónica— can be installed without any friction. Without forgetting that this pact also prohibits Google (for three years) from making payments to manufacturers or operators to pre-install competing stores or to not place them in specific places on the device. What’s coming now. The agreement is not final: it must be approved by the judge. Both parties have a hearing scheduled for this Thursday, November 6, to discuss the proposal. We’ll see how it ends, but it seems that the final agreement will not be very different from this one. Cover image | Composition with images of Sergey Galyonkin for Flickr and Xataka Android In Xataka | Google has put AI summaries where there used to be links to news. And the media is bleeding

What it is, what games you have access to, and how to get more titles

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We are going to tell you everything you need to know about Amazon Luna free for Amazon Prime users. The online store has changed the strategy with its cloud gaming platform, and allows users who have a Prime subscription to access its basic version. Let’s start by briefly reminding you what it is Amazon Moonand then we will tell you which version of the platform you can access and what different versions you have. Then we will tell you how to get more games, and how to start playing and where you can do it from. What is Amazon Luna Amazon Luna is a streaming video game platform. This means that they are games that you will not play locally by installing them on your computer, but rather you will connect through the Internet to the servers of this service to play them remotely. The advantage of this service, which is a competitor to others such as NVIDIA GeForce Now either Xbox Game Pass the thing is you don’t need a powerful computer nor modern for current games, since you don’t have to install anything. When it comes to playing, the operation is as follows. The video games you play They are installed on Amazon serversand you connect to them through this platform. You will need a controller connected to the computer or device you are going to play on, in addition to having a good Internet connection. In addition, Luna has its own controller that also connects directly to the servers, although on the computer you can use a keyboard and mouse. The good thing about the controller is that when it connects to Luna and not to your device, when you press the button it goes directly to the servers of this platform without first going through the device, which makes the response time shorter. Amazon includes Luna within the services of its Prime subscription. This means that If you pay for Amazon Prime you can use Luna and many of the games included. Not all, because you will only have access to those in your basic subscription. You can play Luna on multiple devices. You can do it on any computer with a browser, on Android with its own app, iOS and iPad with a browser, Fire TV devices and some Samsung and LG televisions. The way to use Amazon Luna is simple. You simply enter the file of a game that you like in its catalog and you click on the play button to start it in the browser or device, using the controls you have linked. What games do you have access to? Amazon Luna has two versions, the standard and the premium. Your Prime subscription gives you access to the standard version, which has fewer games. The catalog is limited, although there are some big name gamesfrom popular ones like Fortnite to recent ones like Hogwarts Legacy or the latest Indiana Jones game. You also have access to the GameNight group gameswith which you can play with other people on the same television by sharing a link, and accessing titles with cooperative mode. How to get more games on Luna In addition to the games that are included in the Prime subscription, you can also pay 10 euros per month for the premium subscriptionwhich has a larger catalog of games. You will also be able to link your accounts from other services such as GOG, EA, Electronic Arts or Ubisoft. This will not allow you to play all the games purchased on them, but it will allow you to play some of them. Furthermore, there are also a game storealthough its operation is complex. In some cases you will buy them directly from Luna, but in other cases You buy them through the linked services store. For example, from Luna you can buy a compatible GOG game to play streaming. In these cases, if you buy a game from another platform through the Luna store, you will also buy it on this platform. Come on, then you can also use it independently. Finally, Amazon has long allowed you claim free gamesand this has now somehow been linked to Luna with the web luna.amazon.es/claims. In it, from time to time they offer you free paid games, both for Luna and for third-party stores. In Xataka Basics | Amazon Luna, analysis: Amazon’s cloud play is pure potential. You just need to exploit it

Watching the next two Real Madrid games on Movistar Plus+ costs 9.99 euros per month. Without permanence and whatever operator you are

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Of all the reasons there are to get a streaming platform, its catalog will always be one of the most relevant. They all have movies, series and documentaries, with sport perhaps being one of the most differentiating things right now. Few offer us football and even less, games as important as the next two that Real Madrid is going to play. You can see both on Movistar Plus+: a platform that costs 9.99 euros per month. Monthly subscription to Movistar Plus+ The price could vary. We earn commission from these links The next Real Madrid matches on Movistar Plus+ If we were thinking about giving Movistar Plus+ a chance, now is a great time to do it. Its price is quite attractive, but we must keep in mind that we can hire it, regardless of which operator we are. Besides, It does not have any type of permanenceso we can subscribe, watch these two games and their catalog for a month and, if we are not convinced, unsubscribe. Let’s talk about Real Madrid games. These days we will be able to see two of the matches of Xabi Alonso’s team: one from LaLiga and another from the Champions. The first of them will face Getafe de Bordalás, today at 9:00 p.m. The other one that we can see is a classic in Europe: it is against Juventus at the Bernabéu on October 22, also at 9:00 p.m. Do you want more Madrid games? You will also have the one against Liverpool on November 4 on Movistar Plus+. As we have already anticipated a little above, Movistar Plus+ also has its own catalog of very interesting films and series. We have one of the best examples of this with ‘The Center‘, a series that the platform premiered very recently and which revolves around the National Intelligence Center (or CNI). Of course, we also have other notable releases this month such as ‘Brilliant Minds’ or ‘Mix Tape’, which will arrive on October 25. Beyond sport and its catalog, there are also other things about Movistar Plus+ that we should add. It is a platform that pWe can share with whoever we wantregardless of whether we are not in the same house. In addition, it supports downloading content to view it offline, ideal if we plan to travel. 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 Plus+ 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

MercurySteam was the ambassador of Spanish video games. Until a sales failure turned the offices into hell

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For years, they were a key reference in the history of video games in Spain. MercurySteam achieved something unusual: programming high-budget games from such beloved classic franchises as ‘Castlevania’ and Metroid from its country of origin. Its international expansion ambitions shone from the studio’s first steps, but have been overshadowed in recent years by complaints from former studio employees who denounce a suffocating work environment and a policy of crunches to meet deadlines. We review the history of MercurySteam from its glorious first steps to the latest revelations about its work dynamics, and that says our colleague Blissy in 3DJuegos. Twenty-something years of ambition. MercurySteam was born in 2002 in San Sebastián de los Reyes, formed by several former members of Rebel Act Studios, creators of an absolutely foundational game in the history of Spanish soft music: ‘Blade: The Edge of Darkness‘, precursor of the soulslike very advanced technology for its time. Determined to demonstrate that our country could compete in the international video game league, they started with a couple of modest but notable titles: ‘American McGee presents: Scrapland’ and ‘Clive Barker’s Jericho’. The Castlevania phenomenon. The real turning point for MercurySteam came with ‘Castlevania: Lords of Shadow’ in 2010, a 3D reformulation of the classic Konami franchise that was born as a stand-alone game and was later adapted to fit into the legendary vampire slayer saga. It was produced with the help of Hideo Kojima and for months its affiliation to the saga was hidden so as not to damage sales of other installments in development. After considerable commercial and sales success, the studio completed the trilogy with ‘Mirror of Fate’ (2013) and ‘Lords of Shadow 2’ (2014), establishing itself as a triple-A developer. A parenthesis. After Castlevania, the studio went through a transition phase. In 2017 they released the ambitious ‘Raiders of the Broken Planet’ (later renamed ‘Spacelords’), a shooter cooperative free-to-play with which they entered the model games as a service. The result was a more discreet success than their previous works, and MercurySteam had to consider a new twist in their plans. This would arrive with a twist similar to that of ‘Castlevania’: revitalize a classic franchise. In 2015 it was learned that MercurySteam had been working on a ‘Metroid’ prototype for Wii U and 3DS. It was not a job in vain: it ended up crystallizing in ‘Metroid: Samus Returns’ (2017) for 3DS, a very well-received remake of the classic ‘Metroid II’. This collaboration with Nintendo progressed into a completely original game, the brilliant ‘Metroid Dread‘ (2021), one of the best games in the Switch catalog, and which marked the long-awaited return of the saga to the 2D perspective after almost two decades. Since then, there have been changes in the studio: the Nordisk Games group acquired 40% of the studiowhich allowed the team to continue growing and tackle new projects. And they have even released a new video game this year, ‘Blades of Fire‘, a third-person RPG that was received with indifference by critics and did not meet sales expectations. It was this puncture that started, since January 2025, a series of measures that have turned MercurySteam, according to former employees interviewed by 3DJuegos, into an example of bad professional practices. In fact, the crisis started somewhat earlier: Already in 2020 MercurySteam had problems. Culture contrary to teleworking, offices with conditioning problems (for example, with very little lighting), poor internal communication, chaotic production and uncredited developers. Everything got radically worse in January 2025, when the company implemented the DIJ (Irregular Distribution of the Day) in some departments, allowing one hour of extra work per day (9 hours, maximum 45 per week), justified by “production needs.” In May, the month of the game’s release, several departments saw their working hours increased to 10 hours a day in total, a change that was managed in a highly criticized manner by employees. Among other problems, communication was always verbal, never in writing; Human Resources presented these hours as mandatory; there was constant appeal to the emotional and the “team spirit”; Teleworking and vacations were banned; and names were taken of those who rejected the measures. On May 8, two workers are fired just before the end of their trial period, one for refusing to work overtime (due to his partner’s risky pregnancy) and another for asking for written explanations. It would only be the beginning: after the failure of ‘Blades of Fire’, fires 18 workers in three days. One of them, a worker on mental health leave who suffered harassment from her boss while on leave, is fired when she returns. Although he thought about suing, he ended up withdrawing the lawsuit out of fear after threats from the company. In September, MercurySteam begins a phase of control and censorship of its employees, where all non-work communication channels are eliminated, “random audits” are announced, rest areas are eliminated, common spaces are reduced, and clocking turnstiles are installed in the kitchen. An entire policy of terror that continues until September 29, when makes the complaint public describing all these facts. Apart from a suspicious maneuver (an anonymous statement, supposedly from workers, but none of those interviewed by 3DJuegos know where it comes from), MercurySteam has implemented the 9 hours of the DIJ intermittently and tries to wash its image with job offers that They paint a much more positive atmosphere. But the worst thing is that there is a “sad and overwhelming” atmosphere in the company because, as one of the witnesses says, “the best thing Mercury had was the atmosphere… they are destroying the only good thing about the company.” A sad parenthesis for a company that was a leader in the sector and is going through a major image crisis due to something as essential as not knowing how to manage a crisis. In Xataka | There are authentic Spanish guerrilla studios programming games for NES: ‘Malasombra’ is the latest example

A player has an insane record, 40,000 games purchased on Steam. That there is a badge to reward him is what is disturbing

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Neither collecting neither gambling addiction: This is pure and simple accumulation. But with a clear objective: to obtain the badge that recognizes the possession of no less than 40,000 games in Steam. An achievement that has already been recognized by databases like SteamDB and that undoubtedly leaves anyone breathless who thinks that the store’s seasonal sales get a little out of hand. We are nothing more than insects contemplating a giant. Sonix the Collector. The milestone has been reached by the user Sonix (SonixLegend), who has become the first person to have more than 40,000 games in his library. The badge is “Game Collector: 40,000+” (the highest of this type that can be achieved) and, according to SteamDB, Sonix reached 40,029 games on September 23, 2025. It now has 40,366. In addition, it adds 22,136 DLCs and the thing does not end here, since it maintains a wish list with 26,936 titles. More data? His favorite game is ‘Alien Swarm’, a semi-unknown free-to-play multiplayer shooter from 2010 to which he has dedicated a whopping 551 hours. A paste. Steam estimates the value of the Sonix collection at $250,041 based on the lowest prices available, but the current total cost would exceed $612,072. And since this includes both purchased titles and free games and promo codes, it is impossible to calculate the true value of what has been purchased. Sonix is ​​based in Shanghai, and has been active on Steam for fifteen years. Your profile shows a level of 303, which is equivalent to activity well above average. Other beasts. The Sonix brand is closely followed by other compulsive buyers. Ian Brandon Anderson is close to achieving the coveted badge, with 39,786 games and is closely followed by a third user, ikun, with 36,888. Interestingly, the three largest collectors achieved new records for the number of games purchased on the same day. We don’t know if it specifically means anything, except that Steam continues to be in enviable health, and that this form of compulsive collecting is not an isolated eccentricity of Sonix: at this moment there are almost 20 users with more than 30,000 games, and the top 50 are all above 22,000. Collecting is not what it used to be. Without a doubt, digital collecting has very different nuances than that of accumulators of physical material: the capacity to store digital material, for example, is practically unlimited. And the constant flow of very substantial discounts in stores like Steam itself makes it possible for collections to multiply at a very notable speed. Or put another way: without realizing it, your Steam library has hundreds, perhaps thousands of items? You have to make a very consistent effort to reach those extremes in physical video game collecting. Playing is another story. Of course, playing all these games is impossible, and we enter into issues that have little to do with the enjoyment of what was purchased: reaching the figure of 40,000 games purchased regardless of what they are or, in the case of physical collecting, buying catalogs of consoles that in a high percentage are made up of low quality games, but that must be had due to completism. There are already studies that define this completism as a form of behavior that has little to do with the acquisition of something we like for our enjoyment and, in these cases, talk about addiction It is not completely left out of the equation. Header | Erik Mclean in Unsplash

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