owners

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

give 600 euros to its owners

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Talking about Barcelona is talking about a city full of motorcycles. In fact, it leads the ranking with more than half a million registered motorcycleswell above Madrid. There is a type of motorcycle that is especially noisy and polluting, one that those of us who started out in the world of motorcycles started out with when we were minors: the motorcycle moped. 49cc. Barcelona has set out to put an end to him. 32,000 mopeds registered. The moped has several key differences from the traditional motorcycle. Teenagers from 15 years old can drive it. Your AM license is approved with a closed-circuit skill test It is not allowed to carry a passenger until they are 18 years old. Vehicles larger than 50cc cannot be driven or exceed 45km/h. By having such restrictive conditions regarding the engine, and minimizing the access barrier, mopeds are the most economical type of motorcycle that can be purchased. Of the 32,000 registered in Barcelona, ​​24,000 are combustion. The subsidy. The Government Commission has approved the bases for a new aid program aimed at replacing combustion mopeds with electric ones, with an initial budget of 15 million euros and with the aim of extending it until 2030. Concretizing. The aid will consist of a single amount of 600 euros, an amount that, according to the Ministry of Transport and Mobility, represents between 16% and 40% of the current cost of equivalent electric mopeds. The condition. To access this aid, it will be mandatory to scrap a combustion moped. With the aim of facilitating the process, the City Council has enabled the Serveis Municipals Barcelona depots, where scrapping can be carried out free of charge and the certificate necessary to apply for the subsidy can be obtained at the same time. And where do I load it?. The golden question when buying any electric vehicle is on the loadin a country of flats and rooms shared. An investment of three million euros is secured to create a battery exchange network, a program that will begin operating this year. The ultimate goal. The Barcelona City Council aims to incorporate up to 20,000 electric vehicles into its city, carrying out a practically complete replacement of each and every one of the gasoline mopeds that travel its streets. Image | Unsplash (Logan Armstrong) In Xataka | The first commercially ready solid-state battery is here. And an electric motorcycle is going to take it

In Tres Cantos they are analyzing the DNA of uncollected dog poop and fining the owners

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The landscape, the species of trees, the flowers in the flowerbeds, the design of the paths or the games for children may vary, but in the parks of Spain (and many other countries) there are certain “basics” that are not usually missing: there are benches, there are fountains… and there is dog poopan annoying reminder that citizens do not always comply with the obligations that come with having pets. In recent years some city councils have tried to solve it creating DNA bases that allow them to locate the owners of the dogs and punish them if they do not take care of their feces. For a while, receiving one of those fines sounded like a distant threat, but in Spain there are already town councils passing from theory to practice. The last example Tres Cantos leaves it, in Madrid. What has happened? That the Tres Cantos City Council said goodbye to 2025 by activating its machinery to fine people who breaks its regulations. So far nothing out of the ordinary. The curious thing is the offense that is being pursued and above all how the City Council hunts down the offenders. What it has done is use the “canine DNA detection service” to fine those neighbors who ignore the excrement that their pets leave on sidewalks, parks and gardens. The ordinance makes it clear that people who walk pets through the municipality must collect “immediately” (and throw in the trash) the poop they leave in any area where pedestrians pass. Failure to do so is considered an infraction that, according to TeleMadrid specifiescarries fines of several hundred euros: between 300 and 600, depending on whether or not the offender is a repeat offender. Is it something new? Tres Cantos announced a year and a half ago his intention to create a “canine genetic census” to have the municipality’s dogs ‘registered’ and thus be able to identify excrement abandoned in the streets. In 2024 even launched a campaign baptized ‘I’m from Tres Cantos, it’s in my DNA’ in which it asked neighbors to register their pets in the following months. The idea was that people would take their animals to an authorized clinic to perform a simple test (basically taking a saliva sample) that would allow them to be registered. The procedure costs about 40 eurosbut the Consistory recalled that it is mandatory. Failure to do so also carries a penalty. The measure did not remain on paper and throughout the last few months the City Council has intensified their efforts to put it into practice, even with collection days of excrement. The surprise (and this is new) came on December 30, when the local government advertisement that the canine DNA system has already allowed him to identify “several owners” of dogs who do not pick up their pets’ feces. And he warned: “He will be punished” But… Is it that important? Yes it is. And not only because the measure wants to once and for all solve the problem of dog poop in cities. As remember from Tres Cantosthe canine registry is obtained in a “simple and harmless” way for the animal and serves many more purposes than sanctioning. “The genetic census is a reliable tool that protects animals, since it allows them to be located if they are lost, mistreated or abandoned, providing scientific certainty in possible judicial processes, claims and complaints,” claimed in July 2024 the Councilor for Public Health. In fact, the canine genetic census has already helped to resolve cases of puppy abandonment. Does it only happen in Tres Cantos? No. The idea of ​​canine DNA censuses has permeated more municipalities in Spain. In December 2024, Pipper on Tour estimated that 81 locations They already require pet owners to take them to clinics to have blood or saliva samples taken to carry out a census. In recent years the idea has attracted municipalities such as Malaga, Collado Villalba, Santa Eularia, Cornellà either Alcala de Henaresamong others. The latter in fact has a “canine CSI” for offenders who risk fines of between 300 and 3,000 euros. In its first year the program made it possible about 200 disciplinary proceedings, although many were directed at owners who still did not register their pets. In July Santa Eulària celebrated also that canine DNA has reduced fecal alerts by half. Images | Bruce Warrington (Unsplash) and Monika Simeonova (Unsplash) In Xataka | Rats are growing by 300% in some cities around the world. And the problem is that we have no idea how to avoid it.

that of closed garage controls and owners

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Paul Wieland is a restless computer scientist. A few years ago he wanted to try control your garage door with your smartphone. There were interesting commercial options such as the MyQ platform, but what he wanted was to be able to open and close it while having access to home Wi-Fi, without depending on the servers of MyQ or any other company. In 2022 he managed to develop the first prototype of his solution, which he called RAGDO (Rage Against the Garage Door Opener, or Rage Against the Garage Door Opener). Users could use home automation platforms such as HomeKit or Home Assistant easily and for free without depending on third-party servers. Depending on third parties is usually a bad idea It was just then that Chamberlain Group, the company responsible for MyQ—a service with 14 million users—decided to cut off access to third-party solutions. The connections people had set up to use their MyQ port with home automation apps from Apple or Google they stopped working. Additionally, Chamberlain began promoting subscription services with external partners, thus breaking the user experience for existing customers. A RAGDO device installed on the garage opener. Source: Ratcloud LLC. These changes were highly criticized by thousands of users who saw how their hardware products lost functionality, although the basic door opening seemed to continue working in the free version of MyQ. At that time, sales of RAGDO – which offered a great solution to the problem – skyrocketed. From believing he would sell 100, Wieland found that he was selling tens of thousands of his devices. This expert commented in The New York Times How RAGDO’s success is due to a widespread frustration: companies sell Internet-connected hardware, but once they get a large enough user base, they modify or use it to “squeeze” customers with forced subscriptions that tend to take control away from users. It’s something we’ve seen numerous times in the recent past. Google announced in April that its first-generation Nest smart thermostats they would become “dumb” thermostatsand the controversy with absurd subscriptions is famous for example in the field of cars: BMW charges extra for heated seats and Mercedes for offering a larger turning radius for the wheels of some of its models or, simply, to run more. The truth is that in an ideal world you should be able to do whatever you want with the digital products you buy, but that doesn’t apply in the US. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was created in the late 1990s, had the goal of fighting content piracy but also made it illegal to try to overcome the digital barriers that companies create to prevent their applications from being used illegally. A quarter of a century later that law remains controversial. Garage controls are the new walled gardens The problems that Wieland and the users of this type of systems have suffered in the US are not very different from those that we suffer in Spain, for example. Garage doors have been able to be opened with a remote control for decades, but this market has become a complex framework of standards and closed and proprietary solutions. While at first the controls were simple and were based on a transmitter and a receiver, the problems of that simplicity—anyone could open or close any door—led to the appearance of several iterations, such as controls with DIP switches with which it was possible to configure fixed combinations different from those of other garages, but which were also easy to end up copying. Currently the most common thing is to have control solutions with “rolling codes” or variable/evolving codes, which ensure that each signal transmitted by the remote is unique and cannot be used for unauthorized access. Security has certainly increased, but this method made numerous companies They will create their own variants of rolling codes for two reasons: one public and reasonable (to protect its users, there are no widely accepted universal standards) and another hidden (to protect the business and generate income). These designs make garage door openers, which are relatively cheap and simple to build, typically expensive for end users. The controls are not compatible between manufacturers even if they use rolling codes, because each one uses its own frequencies and modulations and proprietary code generation protocols. In some cases it is feasible to clone them with “universal remote controls”, and in fact there is a parallel industry in which locksmiths and specialized stores offer the cloning service, or we can purchase these remote controls and then program them ourselves. However, there are, for example, communities of owners in which the managers They are programmed from the switchboardnot from the remote, which prevents cloning the remote without an administrator registering the code on the receiver. The queries in various discussion forums They show that there are many doubts about what works and what doesn’t, and there are not many trivial solutions beyond buying the “official” remote control for each garage. There are, of course, systems that offer the alternative of using mobile applications and Wi-Fi or BLE modules connected to the garage motor. MyQ is the best example of this, but the inertia of the sector and the garage door regulations themselves They do not provide these types of solutions. It may be that the progressive adoption of home automation interconnection like Matter sooner or later I managed to propose a valid alternative, but today we continue to depend on these solutions. Image | Dushawn Jovic In Xataka | “Garage squatters”: there are people parking their cars every day in parking spaces that are not theirs

Porsche owners in Russia woke up this morning without being able to start their car. And they have a suspicion

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They said in Autonotion in 2019 that Russia was a country of extremes. They weren’t talking about the economy (at least not directly), they were talking about car sales. And the Russian market has always been particular, with Lada being the best-selling car brand and, at the same time, having the ability to sneak Porsche ahead of Peugeot. And Porsche lived a decade of love with Russia with constant growth. The wealthiest did not hesitate to opt for the luxury brands Germans. In fact, that report identified Mercedes and BMW as the tenth and eleventh most purchased car companies. In fact, despite the restrictions, Russians continue to buy Western cars, they explained in Motor1.com recently. Those continued sales have thousands of Porsche cars moving through the streets of Russian cities. Or they had them. Because overnight, car owners in Stuttgart keep reporting a problem as simple as it is obvious: their cars don’t move. No, they don’t work. Either they don’t start or they stop after traveling a few meters. The reason for the problem is already known. The origin is more diffuse. My Porsche doesn’t run They pick up their colleagues Motorpassion that since the last days of November, Russian owners of German sports cars are experiencing serious problems starting their cars. The problem seems to lie in the Porsche VTS (Porsche Vehicle Tracking System), a system that the German company offers as a protection measure. With it activated, the vehicle maintains a constant satellite connection so if someone steals the car it is easy to find its location. In that case, a thief must block the satellite signal but in that case the brand understands that, in fact, the car is being stolen and the car automatically does not start or stops after a few meters. This is what has happened in Russia. With a nuance, the Porsche system has incorrectly understood that hundreds or thousands of cars sold since 2013 have been stolen and, therefore, their starting is prevented. The reason is that these cars have lost the satellite connection for a reason that is still unknown. This automatically activates the system and, as we see, leaves the car inoperable. Rolf, the largest dealer group selling Porsche cars in Russia, has confirmed the latter. And the company ceased operations in the country completely in 2022, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Since then its users have been left without technical service. It is now believed that the lack of maintenance of the servers may have caused a failure that has broken that satellite connection and the Porsches have become a gigantic paperweight. The event is so striking that those responsible for Rolf have assured Russian media that the widespread shutdown “may be deliberate.” However, there is no conclusive evidence for the latter. If so, it would be a hybrid warfare maneuver especially curious. For now, what is certain is that there are hundreds of post-2013 Porsches completely stranded… and with their customers looking for desperate solutions. The companions of Motorpassion They report that some of them claim to have solved the problem with hard reboots, such as turning off the battery for 10 hours. The car would have picked up the satellite signal again at that moment and could start moving again. Others have achieved it rebooting the VTS system or, directly, removing it completely, which involves disassembling the seats and a good part of the dashboard. Whether it was some kind of computer attack or simply due to a lack of server maintenance, the truth is that hundreds of Porsche cars have been stranded and that speaks volumes. how hopelessly connected our cars are nowadays. Almost always, arguing or defending greater driver safety. Our cars have become a connected data center… whether we want it or not. The Porsche case is an example of how an interesting and useful system to prevent car theft can leave us with a completely stopped car if the system architecture suffers irreparable damage. And in this case we are not talking about a failure in the vehicle, we are talking about a direct attack against servers or satellites that directly allow our cars to move. Right now, a new one keeps constant information about our driving in a small black box. We are connected to a network with geolocation to make an emergency call with eCall, mandatory since 2018. Some modern cars can receive notices in your browsers of various incidents, How does the DGT want to send when detect a car stopped on the road with the V-16 beacon active. But it has even been proposed to use the data collected to force us to circulate around the city. in fully electric mode if we have a plug-in hybrid car or harness its power if it is detected that the batteries have not been recharged for too long. Therefore, technically it is possible to turn off cars remotely. It would be very difficult to order a concrete attack against a single vehicle since connected information sent from a car is supposedly anonymous and end-to-end encrypted. As long as that car has not been reported stolen, which can allow the police to contact the manufacturer and him order a remote shutdown. However, vulnerabilities that could leave hundreds or thousands of cars completely stopped or at the mercy of a remote control are one of the industry’s biggest concerns. Especially in a geopolitical context in which hybrid warfare seems to be increasingly present. Photo | Josh Berquist and Vadim Artyukhin In Xataka | If you do not have the V16 beacon you will be fined, but the director of the DGT proposes a grace period: “the agents will be flexible”

The best horror movie of this winter has been released. And the protagonists are the owners of a home in Spain

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The abrupt rise of the garbage rate that has exploded throughout Spain is not the result of a improvised decision of each town hall, but rather of the rush to have arrived at the last minute. Namely: of the obligatory application of Law 7/2022 (transposition of European directives) which orders that the waste service should no longer be partially financed by general taxes and be paid 100% by a specific rate based on the “polluter pays” principle, eliminating the structural deficit that many municipalities had been carrying. What has happened? That the “garbage” is more noticeable in some places than others. The normative origin. The norm established a maximum period until April to incorporate it into ordinances, which has meant that municipalities that delayed its application have communicated the charge practically at once, with increases that in some cases double or triple previous receipts and are already reflected in the CPI with an increase 30% year-on-year in the cost of the service, despite the fact that not all municipalities have implemented it yet, which anticipates additional increases when the deployment is full. In other words, curves are coming. Cangas de Morrazo as epicenter. As it is, the first public implosion has happened in Cangasin Pontevedra, where neighborhood anger became an episode of public order with councilors escorted by the Civil Guard and throwing objects after approving an ordinance that in bars went from 107 to 1,236 euros and in homes it practically doubled receipts, accumulating more than 8,000 signatures against an increase perceived as abrupt, without a transitional phase or prior dialogue. Hoteliers allege unviability when passing bills from 1,400 to more than 3,000 euroswhile regretting that the process was carried out without calling affected actors before approval, which has turned a legal requirement into a political trigger, in a framework where the service had 17 years without updating rates and was deficient in more than two million per year, compensated via general taxes that can no longer be used for this purpose. The inequalities. The law requires a rate, but does not dictate how to calculate itwhich has generated a mosaic of municipal models with disparate criteria: cadastral value, water consumption, number of registereduse of the premises, area or even flat rate per home. This diversity implies that citizens of adjacent municipalities pay very different amounts for an equivalent service, something already warned by the FEMP and by Treasury inspectors as a sure source of massive litigation. The recent annulment by the TSJ of Castilla y León, an ordinance from León opens a path that businesses, schools and sectors especially hit with receipts are already exploring up to 30,000 euros. Experts warn that the reference to the cadastral value may constitute a vice of illegality by disconnecting from the actual generation of waste and functioning de facto as an improper surcharge of the IBIwhich could reproduce a similar scenario to the municipal capital gains: imposed instrument, politically supported, challenged in a cascade and finally revoked, with an obligation to return it to whoever has resorted to it within the deadline. Europe: obligation and margin. Political tension is fueled by a deliberate misunderstanding: Brussels demands compliance with recycling, reuse and circular economy goals, but it does not force that the instrument is a rate nor does it mark the calculation formula. In fact, it was the Spanish legislator who chose this path and transferred the technical and political responsibility for executing it to the city councils, without defining a uniform standard cost methodology or setting national equity criteria. The result is a double cross reproach: The city councils accuse the Government of imposing an obligation without an application manual and the Government points to Europe to cover a decision of internal design with inevitability, while the citizen perceives that they are beginning to pay directly for a service that already existed and whose cost structure is not explained precisely, which erodes the social acceptance of the tax. Economic effect. The rate not only makes household and business bills more expensive, but reorder incentives: If the deficit can no longer be covered by taxes and must appear on the invoice, the system penalizes waste volumetrics and rewards separation and reduction practices where ordinances have introduced bonuses linked to the use of brown containers, composting, door-to-door or clean points. However, and very importantly, in large cities many current models do not reward individual behavior, proxy rules apply (cadastral, surface, neighborhood) and generate equal payment for neighbors with radically different behaviors, something criticized from environmentalism for diluting the environmental purpose of the norm. Meanwhile, the jump 30% in CPI and business cases with receipts multiplied by three have produced not only social irritation but fear of a massive wave of resources, in a context in which city councils acknowledge that they are already preparing legal defense anticipating that the rate could become a new fiscal front with a path to court. Conclusion: a sinvivir. The crisis of the “garbage” It is not born in the amount but in the combination of inexcusable legal obligation, abrupt transfer to the taxpayer without cushioning, disparate heterogeneity between municipalities, poor communication, absence of national guidance and a highly fragile legal system that opens the door to serial litigation. Cangas has been the first burst visible of a phenomenon that is structural: Spain has made it a norm to finance waste with taxes pass them on in full as a rateand this simultaneous redesign without homogeneity or pedagogy has coincided with inflationary cycles, accumulated business burdens and distrust of administrations, producing a perfect storm that mixes environmental compliance, fiscal shock and perceived legitimacy. Image | Daniel Capilla In Xataka | If you own a house, chances are you have a new problem on the horizon: the garbage rate. In Xataka | “Garbage tourism” arrives in Spain: when the next town is your landfill

A soda giant assaults coffee by buying the owners of Marcilla and L’Or. Now they go for the Nestlé cake

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There are two worlds when we talk about coffee brands. On the one hand, the numerous toasters and small brands that focus on the Specialty coffee. On the other, a handful of conglomerates huge that copied the shelves of the supermarkets. Nestlé, Starbucks, Lavazza Or Jde Peet’s are some of those giants, but a brand of sodas arrives to take a good bite to the increasing, coffee cake worldwide. As? Buying to one of its main competitors: the holders of Marcilla or L’Or. KDP. They are the acronym of Keurig Dr Pepper, one of the world’s largest beverage companies. This is the result of the fusion in 2018 of Dr Pepper Snapple Group, holders of the 7up or Schweppes brand, among others, and of Keurig Green Mountaina powerful and historical coffee brand that revolutionized the monodosis system in the United States in the 90s both in offices and in homes. They are a giant with a assessment of about 43,000 million euros. The group manages more than 125 brands, but talking about coffee, in the United States they have Keurig coffee makers With own capsules, In the pure Nestlé style with the Nespresso. Well, that megagroup has just launched an operation of 15.7 billion euros to buy one of the largest coffee companies in Europe, the Dutch Jde Peet’s. Jde Peet’s. This is the matrix of emblematic brands such as Marcilla, Saimaza and L’Or in the Café World, but also of Senso or Hornimans, among others. Before the purchase, the company’s valuation was about 13,000 million euros and, Despite all the problems of the coffee sector these last months and price increases, They closed 2024 with a growth of 13.2%, exceeding the forecasts of the 1,250 million euros. Coffee Empire. Although in Europe they remained stable, performance in areas such as Latin America, Russia, the Middle East and Africa was what promoted the company during the last year, translating in an increase of 21%. And, precisely, that is what KDP seeks with the purchase of Jde Peet’s: entering a market that they have not exploited, but in which the brands of the Dutch are well established. To fulfill the strategy, KDP will create two entities when the purchase is closed: Beverage CO and Global Coffee Co. The latter seems like a rebranding of what so far was Jde Peet’s. Objective: Nestlé. This purchase occurs in a context of a Strong up coffee price increase In recent months thanks to a Perfect storm due to factors such as bad crops and shortage problems, as well as a World demand growth Coffee, especially in China. And the group they have in the sight is Nestlé. This giant has its top priority in coffee, Representing About 20,000 million euros in 2024 with brands such as Nescafé, Nespresso, Dolce Taste, Bonka and a strategic alliance with Starbucks to create home products (more capsules). As we read in Reutersanalysts already estimate that this new KDP entity will have a business size similar to Nestlé, both with a 20% share in the global market. Although the purchase is there and there is an agreement between both parties, such an operation should be reviewed carefully, but it is expected to be resolved in the first half of 2026. We will see what happens with its brands, but in a context in which coffee not only crosses problems due to climate change, but Also for tariffsthis fusion between the American and the European makes all the way. In Xataka | How much coffee a day is too coffee: science has investigated it and has its verdict

In Galicia they have tired of finding garbage outside the cubes. So they will begin to rummage in it to fine their owners

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In Sanxenxo They are fed up of finding trash out of the containers. Hence, the cleaning service and the local police of this coastal municipality of Las Rías Baixas, very popular as Tourist destination During the summer months, they have assumed a peculiar task: rummage in the bags to hunt receipts, tickets or any other track that reveals who has skipped the ordinance. And the City Council already warns: the ‘joke’ can be expensive. What happened? That Sanxenxo, a municipality of the Pontevedrés coast, He said enough. Its authorities have tired of being garbage bags outside the containers spread throughout the people and want to cut that annoying root habit. As? Searching on the bags to identify their ‘owners’. And how will they do it? In A statement Published on Tuesday the City Council explains that the concessionaire dedicated to the collection of waste, Ascan, will be responsible for “analyzing” the bags thrown out of the collection points to “locate the offender.” It will also do so from the hand of the Municipal Police and with a strategy worthy of the classic detectives. The operators will look for receipts, cards or any other track that can reveal where the bag came from. What if they locate the person in charge? Sanction. The Galician City Council recalls that those who skip the Environmental Protection Regulations, public cleaning and garbage collection face a fine of up to 600 euros. After all, The Consistory insistsArticle 39 of that rule makes it clear that pouring garbage into “unauthorized places” is considered a very serious infraction. Why do you do it? Because over the last days the Consistory has encountered garbage bags thrown in the center of the town, in areas as crowded as Consistory or Praza do Pazo, although it has also located abandoned waste in other parts of the interior of the municipality. In Sanxenxo there are some 18,000 neighbors registered, according to the latest INE data, but the number of people who walk and spend the night in the town He shoots every summer. Some estimates They point out that its population It is quintupple During July and August and, at least in 2020, the town had 11,100 second residences. Only in August last year the INE registered 70,000 travelers housed in hotel stores. To give services, to them the usual neighbors, the town has 2,000 containers and 651 islands of waste, spaces that the City Council wants them to use yes or yes. Although it must resort to fines to achieve it. Is it the first to do it? No. Sanxenxo is not the first town hall to which it occurred to search in the garbage bags to hunt offenders. Before they have already done other municipalities in the country, with disparate results. Similar measures were raised in their day in Sherry, Barcelona, San Sebastián either Seville. In the case of Donostia, In 2015 The Consistory ended up issuing an order so that the operators in charge of the collection of garbage stopped opening the bags. The decision was made after the complaint of a neighbor they had fined 250 euros. Images | Sanxenxo 1 City Council 1 and 2 and Hugo Cadavez (Flikr) In Xataka | The rent has risen so much in Galicia that its beaches have problems hiring something fundamental: lifeguards

The psychological barrier of 100 euros per video game is closer than ever. And the owners of ‘GTA VI’ have opinions

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Barely a five years ago We asked ourselves If 80 euros for a PlayStation 5 game was a lot or little. Today the thing has gone to more. Because of the latest movements in the industry and although no company has decided to take the final step, the psychological barrier of 100 euros already has more than “psychological” than authentic barrier. Because we already have it on the horizon. The Take-Two CEO, of course. The last comment On the price of the games it has been from the Take-Two CEO (owner of Rockstar), Strauss Zelnick, who has spoken of “variable prices” when asked about ‘GTA VI‘. The game, he says, must be in proportion to the experience offered: “Our goal is to create The best entertainment in the world and take it to all consumers, wherever they are, and for that We must offer value“, he says, while defending the price of 50 euros for ‘Mafia: The Old Country’, also of the company. It makes sense, but it hurts the same. The variable price, on the table, has logic: if the game is a blockbuster that It has cost 200 million dollars It will have a more expensive price than an indie production with a team of five people. But before that logic we find more or less arbitrary increases, that have been much discussed and that actually have a lot of industry’s score to see how far the machine can be forced. For example, in the announcement of his imminent switch 2, Nintendo talked about games such as ‘Mario Kart World’, with a price close to 90 euros In its physical edition. The fallacy of entertainment. Meanwhile, we continue to see opinions such as Shuhei Yoshida, responsible for the PlayStation brand, today retired, and that said in an interview that “I think it remains a bargain (the price of 80-90 euros) considering the amount of entertainment that the highest quality games provide compared to other forms of entertainment.” It is a fallacy that has been widely refuted: The “Cost per hour” as a value measure and consequent excuse to raise prices blur the quality of experience in favor of the number of hours, and has taken us, over time, to A large amount of filling and superfluous material in video games. To 80 those of PS5. The last time we saw such an aggressive price increase was when PlayStation 5 imposed as a rule for its AAA games the 80 euros. At that time, We adjust prices to inflation From the video game industry until its beginnings and we conclude that they were not as expensive as they seemed: the current 80 euros of PS5 equals almost 120 that the Super Nintendo games cost or the almost 400 of the Neo Geo games in the nineties. Have we gone to better? Are games cheaper now? The numbers seem to secure it. Cheaper, but no. As Baitybait explained In a video about games pricesif we adjust to inflation today’s games are not so expensive. But the truth is that market circumstances have changed since the time of the Super Nintendo. They have changed, for example, certain sales strategies (before a game was a game and point; now there are special editions, microtransactions, DLCs and then launch complete editions …). The digital games market has also changed, now predominantand that has not brought with it a price decrease even though it is cheaper for companies. And it has changed, in short, the fact that the number of releases has multiplied by ten, so the expectations that the player handles with each new game are very different from those that were handled in the eighties or the nineties. Currently investing in a game is not an action as carefree as before: each game is required much more. Therefore, the games are comparatively the same or even cheaper than before, but the player’s psychology has changed greatly. Header | Rockstar In Xataka | People are completely obsessed with the ‘GTA VI’ trailer. And you are looking for clues and theories in every detail

Filling a Tesla Cybertruck with solar panels only costs $ 10,000. Its owners now have 7.5 kilometers extra of autonomy

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We said when the Cybertruck tesla was presented than the larger and more disruptive electric car of Elon Musk’s company arrived with a Important overpricing and with less autonomy of the fiancee. Since then, sales have grown at an irregular pace. For a time it earned him to become The best -selling luxury vehicle In the United States but a few months later he found that they were not going to be able to continue selling the electric pick-up above $ 100,000 for an indefinite time. What is clear is that Tesla Cybertruck has become something like an “image vehicle.” It is not a purchase based on rationality Well, it is not the most comfortable car and, Not much less, the most capable outside the asphalt. It is a purchase that aligns the driver with the most outgoing facet of Elon Musk’s products. Part of the interest raised by Tesla Cybertruck is in its ability to adapt, supposedly, to any circumstance. His facet has been highlighted to spend a few days in the field (although his finishes to camperize the model Leave much to be desired) and has unleashed the imagination of the owners to the point of transforming it into A tower with wheels and metrallet. And with that last purpose, that of carrying out something unexpected, a company has proposed to increase the autonomy of electric car based on putting solar panels distributed throughout the body. It doesn’t seem the best idea. An extra ridiculous at a very high price The transformation of this tesla cybertruck It could be seen live During the past Ces of Las Vegas. There, the company Sunflare Solar presented the electric pick-up wrapped in flexible solar panels that aim to expand the completely electric autonomy of this electric car. Or, rather, we should say that the case may be free of charge for a few kilometers. Few, if we take into account the price of the transformation and the results that are presented in the best conditions. According to the company’s accounts, collected by Electreck, Sunflare aloner promises to be able to travel a few extra kilometers daily for the modest price of $ 10,000. They believe that with their flexible panels distributed throughout the body can be obtained up to 1.5 kW extra daily. Assuming a consumption of 20 kWh/100 km, we would be talking about just 7.5 kilometers. The figure is far from what Elon Musk who before launching his Tesla Cybertruck mentioned that it would be offered with the option of adding solar panels on the roof that would deliver up to 25 kilometers of extra autonomy. Something that, obviously, has not occurred. Who could make sense for? Well, we could imagine that if we want to camp using the Tesla Cybertruck for our trip we can always use the vehicle to feed different devices. In that case, 1.5 kWh of extra power will always be of great help since we will not be draining the battery at all. In fact, to the company that has presented this option specialized in the use of solar panels in the roofs of the homes but, also, On the ceiling of camperized vehiclesFor example. Of course, we must bear in mind that we are talking about an “improvement” that costs $ 10,000. And, to this we must add that the electric car was sold as a kind of vehicle to the proof of any damage. Its body, of steel, is designed to not suffer with the blows and cover the entire body of solar panels is to buy all the ballots to leave us good money if someone brushes our vehicle. The effectiveness of solar panels in vehicles is a pending task. At the moment, no one has managed to get a good enough performance for it to deserve to invest in technology. Manufacturers like Mercedes continues to study their possibilities But, until now, everything has remained in an auxiliary element for feed electrical devices of the vehicle without increasing consumption so the profit is minimal. Photo | Tesla In Xataka | The owner of a Tesla Model and has filled his roof of solar panels to load “up to 100 km”. It is not a good idea

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