Steam

Xbox wants to have 1 billion players a day. It’s what 25 Steam would do on their best day

by

Another day in the video game industry, this Monday Microsoft announced layoffs at Xbox. 1,600 at once, five studios to make a living and another 1,600 layoffs over the next few months. To carry out the restructuring, what is known as “Xbox reset”Microsoft put Asha Sharma at the head of the company who came from one of the company’s AI divisions and who arrived with a clear mission: to break with the past. After weeks of good words, drastic decisions began and, in a release gigantic, justified the decisions of layoffs and restructuring (the consequences of which we still do not fully know, since we have been learning about layoffs in different Xbox studios for two days). There are interesting data, such as extreme bureaucracy within Xbox that had complicated things in recent years, the enormous investment in Game Pass and the fact that caught my attention the most: the number of daily players that Xbox wants. Because Sharma talks about wanting a billion people to be “entertained” with Xbox every day. And, after wondering what it means to have a billion people every day on your platform, I have only been able to come to one conclusion: I would like to see how they do it. The Xbox of a billion players and the old woman’s account I don’t say this in a defiant sense, but out of genuine curiosity. I would like to see how Xbox, or any company, for that matter, is able to bring together a billion people a day on its platform. Sharma comments that they see themselves capable of achieving that goalbut the point is that there are many more stimuli than ever and, furthermore, setting these goals only has one consequence: when they are not met, there will be more ‘resets’. Let’s go in parts. The changes they are making seek to ensure that “Xbox has a bigger future, not a smaller one.” Furthermore, he notes that “the next decade of games will be bigger, more global and more creative than anything we’ve seen before.” Said like this, you may think that they are going to invest a lot (they themselves say that they are going to invest a lot, but with a better focus and discipline), but there is a problem: are there really that many players willing to be on your platform? What is an Xbox? Answering the first question, players… there are. We are more than 8,000 million people throughout the world and esteem what’s there around 3 billion people who play video games. This in total, not on a daily basis and, furthermore, you must keep in mind that everything is mixed here: the accounts include everything from the most ‘Eat’ of ‘Call of Duty’ to your grandfather who plays ‘Candy Crush’ or a Facebook game. Responding to the second, Sharma says they want a billion people entertained with Xbox. And not only those who have a console count (whose sales are quite poor), but also those who play from PC and Xbox games on Steam and platforms like PS5. That is, everything that has the Xbox seal. That said, let’s tell why one billion people seem to get it “easy” Yes, you have so many franchises and you are present everywhere, but things get complicated if we put the magnifying glass on the few games that can really help the company achieve those figures. They are all estimates, but we would talk about 110 million monthly players in ‘Minecraft’, between 70 and 90 million (counting mobile phones) monthly in ‘Call of Duty’ and between 200 and 300 million players diaries in ‘Candy Crush’. There we see the dimension of mobile games, really, and how they crush those on more traditional platforms. ‘World of Warcraft’ too would enter there, with about 9 million monthly players. These are figures that many companies would like, but they are far from those 1,000 million a day that Sharma points to. To further contextualize, Steam, which is another of the huge video game platforms, had its historical peak of players a few months ago, reaching more than 42 million. In the last 24 hours, almost 39 million people connected and, as we see in graphs like Steamdb, they are very stable… and in growth. Well, Sharma wants the same as they would get 25 Steams every day. As a player, I would love to have so many people because it would allow, perhaps, the industry to be somewhat more sustainable because there would be many more players among which smaller studios could find their place to grow, but the problem I see with these accounts is that, publishing that you want there to be 1,000 million people on your platform, the only result (the most likely, at least) is failure. And when you fail in such a large company when you have set this as an objective, the manager is not the one who pays the bill: it is the employees. It’s something we see constantly and We come from three years of constant layoffs in the industry to be optimistic about the issue. What we have seen these days is that they are changing the strategy in that sense. They are releasing the smaller studios that do not sell to bet on what makes money. An example is King (‘Candy Crush’) and Mojang (‘Minecraft’), which They will report directly to herwith Sharma being the one who will make the decisions to achieve the objective. Another thing is whether people who watch the ‘Fallout’ series, a game series whose license belongs to Xbox, count as “people entertained by Xbox.” We just have to wait and see what happens, but it is evident that Xbox’s turnaround is there, releasing studios that were developing games with soul to bet on what makes money. After all, it is the objective of every company. In Xataka | The best time to buy an electronic device was yesterday. The second best time is today

Valve blames RAM manufacturers for Steam Machine price

by

The current technological and video game news is marked this week by two very clear things: ‘GTA VI‘ on the one hand, Steam Machine on the other. Both have something in common: controversy over the price. In the case of the Rockstar game because the 80 euro edition feels cut. In the case of the Valve machine because the price of 1,039 euros seems very inflated. And we don’t know if Rockstar had a gun to its head to set that price, but we do know that Valve had no option with the Steam Machine. Basically, it was an offer they couldn’t refuse. The situation is what it is. We have already spoken at length about the different editions of a Steam Machine that has hardware that is not cutting edge, far from it, and that comes with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage for 1,039 euros. If you want 2 TB of SSD, you have to spend 1,359 euros. The control, in both configurations, is separate. And the problem is that Valve has found itself launching a machine at the worst possible time, one in which the consumer components segment is destroyed because everything goes to the gluttonous AI industry. The problem is that they had to release the announced machine no matter what (they announced it in November), so they had no other options. Almost…literally. Questionable tactics. It’s no secret that Valve has found itself in deep water with the Steam Machine. A few weeks ago they asked (half jokingly, half seriously) help getting RAMwhich confirmed an open secret: if the machine was lagging, and if it was going to be very expensive, it was because of the RAM and the SSD. Gamer Nexus is one of the best hardware analysts on YouTube and his video about the system is all you need to see if you’re interested in this product, but it’s also interesting for one reason: Valve has done what it can. Or what they have left him. How they collect in Kotakuin a moment of the analysis comments on this matter, stating that Valve confessed to him that they had not been able to obtain any juicy contract with any RAM/SSD seller. The Valve employee’s phrase is devastating: “Look, there are no contracts. There is nothing. These guys are… they give us a price every month and then they say ‘you can buy this amount’ and it’s a yes or a no. And if we say no, they never talk to us again.” It makes sense. Because of that huge limitation, the Steam Machine being sent for review has a single 16GB DDR5 RAM module, but the motherboard actually has capacity for a second module, so it’s easy to imagine future Steam Machines with two 8GB sticks instead of one 16GB because that’s basically what they can access. And the saddest thing about it is that it makes sense. Valve is the king of video games on PC, it has its great gaming platform in Steam with benefits and power like no other player in the sector. However, in the world of hardware, Valve is a nobody. You are not going to make huge or constant orders with the deck or the Machine, so no manufacturer is going to associate with them to “price them” and be able to have a cheaper machine on the market. In the end, and in a much clearer summary, Valve is not Apple, it is not Samsung, it is not a company that is going to put millions of devices on the street and that, therefore, has room to negotiate better prices and payment conditions. In fact, even those giants are having problems. and what remains. This whole situation with the Steam Machine is a bummer, whether you were interested in the machine or not. It is something that reflects the first actions of more than a decade ago were a monumental fiascobut with the success of the Steam Deck, now they have wanted to take the bull by the horns and be the ones to launch the Steam Machine, but they have been caught out by this whole situation. In fact, they have already hinted that they were planning to launch it between 800 and 900 euros. In recent conversations they have pointed out that if we look at the price increase that Steam Deck has sufferedthat difference is what we should cut from the 1,039 euros to have an idea of ​​the price at which they wanted to sell it. It is no excuse, of course, in the end this is Valve’s problem, but the reality is very different: we are the users who are having to face more expensive technology and those of us who cannot access computers (basic for many of us) at the prices that existed before the NAND chip market exploded. Oh well, we have to continue creating slopewhich is the important thing. In Xataka | The runaway price of RAM threatens more expensive phones than ever. And that’s not even the biggest problem

I was thinking about buying a Steam Machine, but its price has put me off. This PC seems like a better option to me

by

Yes, we already know the official prices of the Steam Machine. I really liked the concept of a tiny PC that I could have in the living room connected to the television, ideal for enjoying my gigantic Steam library (hello, digital Diogenes), but the price is much higher than expected. To contextualize it a little, its price is higher than that of PlayStation 5 Pro despite his last rise and its performance is quite far from the Sony console. So, to be honest, I wouldn’t buy the new Steam device, even though I really like the idea and I love how well it works, for example, Steam Deck. For a little less, there are computers like this PC Neo that can offer similar performance and, although it loses the concept of a compact PC along the way, has many other strong points. It is available, by the way, for 999 euros. NEO Gaming PC Ryzen 5 5500 RTX 5060 Ti SSD 1TB 32GB The price could vary. We earn commission from these links An alternative to the Steam Machine if you are looking for a conventional PC We must start from the basis that they are two very different PCs (despite having a very similar price), but knowing that this Neobyte equipment can be a very good alternative if what you are looking for is to have a conventional PC to place in your setup with two monitors as is my case. First of all, let’s look at the prices of the Steam Machine in its different configurations to fully understand what the outlook looks like: The processor used by this computer is an AMD Ryzen 5 5500. It has 6 cores and 12 threads like the one used by the Steam Machine, although what matters here is the architecture. In that sense, the Steam team’s CPU uses Zen 4 architecture and the Neobyte Zen 3 team, so the Steam Machine clearly takes the point there. The same does not happen on the graphics card. As explained Digital Foundrythe graphical performance offered by the new Steam Machine is between an RX 6600 and an RX 7600 from AMD. Both GPUs are one step below PNY’s RTX 5060 Ti which uses the PC Neo that we are using in the comparison. Graphics card that, in addition, It is compatible with DLSS 4.5a technology that can help us have much better performance when playing. And how are they doing by memory? The Steam Machine uses 16GB of DDR5 RAM in a single module, while the PC Neo comes with 32GB DDR4 memory. In addition, the most basic version of the Steam Machine (which costs 1,039 euros) has 512 GB of storage, while the other gaming PC has 1TB. Finally, there is the issue of SteamOS, which is the basis on which the Steam Machine and Steam Deck are based. This operating system is comfortable to use and great for playing, offering the user an experience very similar to that of a console. Windows is not at that level, but we can use the Big Picture mode of the Steam app itself to achieve a result that, although not the same, provides a similar solution. So which option is better? There is no easy, universal answer for everyone. Personally, I think this Neo PC from Neobyte is a better option. It will offer performance very similar to the Steam Machine, although with the advantage that we can change your graphics card or processor (or basically any component) in the future. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: neoybyte neo pc ✅ THE BEST Good GPU + RAM combination: Despite being DDR4, this PC comes with 32 GB of RAM and an RTX 5060 Ti. It is a combo to play for several years with DLSS 4.5. Updatable for the future: It is a conventional gaming PC, which means that we can update it whenever we want. ❌ THE WORST Bottom processor: Its CPU uses an old architecture, so it is somewhat limited. This is something that we will especially notice playing at low resolutions. It does not have that compact living room component: It is a gaming PC with the good and the bad, so you may not want to place it in the living room as it is bulky. 💡 BUY IT IF… You are looking for a computer to play with for several years with the possibility of being able to update it to improve its performance. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… What you’re looking for is a “living room PC” to play on TV with your entire Steam library. You may also be interested PcCom Lite AMD Ryzen 5 5500 / 16GB / 1TB SSD / RTX 5060 V2 / Windows 11 Home The price could vary. We earn commission from these links COOLPC Black I – Ryzen 5 5500 / GeForce RTX 5060 8GB / 16GB DDR4 / SSD 500GB / W11 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 | Steam, Artiom VallatNeobyte In Xataka | Best gaming laptops in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and six recommended models In Xataka | DDR4 or DDR5? What RAM to choose so as not to pay even more than necessary in the middle of the price crisis

The price of Steam Machine was predictable. The worrying thing is what it tells us about PS6 and Xbox Helix

by

After announcing it in November of last year and keeping it in a dangerous limbo due to component crisisValve has confirmed the Steam Machine priceending weeks of rumors with a result that surprises few. that the Steam Machine had ballots to cost 1,000 euros, it was not a surprise (and even more so after the stratospheric Steam Deck price increase), but the worst is what is advancing for the next generation of consoles. Nails PS6 and Xbox Helix that they should be a generational leap and that are being given the price of the most expensive consoles in history. The 1,000 euros. When Valve announced the PC, it did so without a price. He invited experts to his offices so they could try out some games, see the machine both inside and out, and experience what the new Steam Machine could do (because there were already some that They failed more than a decade ago) could offer. The price debate immediately arose and, when doing the math, it was estimated among the 600 and 800 euros in the most pessimistic estimate. Reality has ended up far exceeding that forecast because the 1,039 euros are for the version with 512 GB of storage, the 2 TB version goes to 1,359 euros and then you have a pack with the controller for both configurations. Clearly, it is a very high price and, although it has the advantage of the form factor and a dissipation that seems very efficient, there are no performance advantages over a piece-based PC. It’s not ‘next gen’. Because, beyond the price, something that is being discussed is that the performance is nothing like the other Thursday either. Gamer Nexus either Digital Foundry They have already been able to get their hands on the system and the conclusion is that the performance (roughly) is similar to a 12 GB RTX 3060, an RTX 3050, an Arc A770 or an RX 6600. We are not talking about cutting-edge hardware at all. Not at all. It’s something that depends on the game and its optimization, but that’s where the shots go. And, if we want a simpler comparison, putting it next to a PS5 In performance mode (prioritizes FPS rate), making the game’s visual specs on Steam Machine match those of PS5, performance is very, very similar. Sometimes above PS5, sometimes below. We are talking about the base PS5, the one from 2020, not the PS5 Pro. More than 1,000 euros to move around the performance of a six-year-old machine is not good news. Steam Machine vs PS5 in ‘Forza Horizon 5’. Screenshot of the Digital Foundry video Steam Machine vs PS5 in ‘007 First Light’. Screenshot of the Digital Foundry video Steam Machine vs PS5 in ‘Black Myth Wukong’. Screenshot of the Digital Foundry video Steam Machine vs PS5 in ‘Alan Wake 2’. Screenshot of the Digital Foundry video Steam Machine vs PS5 in ‘Crimson Desert’. Screenshot of the Digital Foundry video PS6 and Xbox Helix, when. The more than 1,000 euros with the component crisis (which will last a few more years) no one will lower it to us anymore, but… what about the new generation consoles? We have been in the current generation for six years and it is an open secret (in the case of Xbox it is not even a secret) that both Microsoft and Sony are working on their new machines. If everything had continued as it seemed, PS6 and Helix should have seen the light between 2027 and 2028. PS5 has a good sales pace with 90 million units sold and ‘GTA VI‘ is postulated as that title that will allow the Sony machine to have a final run before the next generation. The problem is the same one that Valve has faced: the component crisis. A few weeks ago, Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox, pointed out that at the beginning of 2027 they would send the Helix development kits to companies, which indicates that we would see the machine at the end of the year or the beginning of 2028 and something more important: the console was going to be expensive. Rposing things. Since then, the wheel has continued to turn and Microsoft itself has spoken again about Helix, pointing out that what they wanted to achieve at the hardware level was getting out of hand because it is more expensive every day to set up a platform. Sharma commented that mass audiences “won’t spend thousands of dollars on a new generation of consoles,” so they were rethinking things with “radically different business models,” whatever that means. What is clear is that assembling a console that represents a generational leap compared to what we have had since 2020 is not cheap for companies that have to calculate the price/performance ratio very well and, although consoles are not the main source of income for the video game divisions of Sony and Microsoft, they cannot go to wild losses either. Hold on a little longer. The bad thing is that hope is not something that is in the equation at a time when we see that a machine like the Steam Machine, with its more than 1,000 euros, hopefully equals the performance of a base PS5. And that anticipates two futures: new consoles that are more powerful and much more expensive than current ones or hybrid consoles that rely on streaming gaming, which would further complicate the already damaged preservation scene. A third option? May both Microsoft and Sony hold on to their current generation a little longer. It is something that would be easier for Sony, which has the PS5 Pro on the market and much more stock than Microsoft, but by holding PS5 longer and delaying PS6 it would be able to take advantage a little more of a current generation that feels wasted in some aspects and, above all, it would be giving the component market time to recover. If not, consoles costing more than 1,000 euros at launch will be … Read more

Steam Machine, information, technical sheet

by

After years of rumors and a first failed attempt back in 2015, Valve is back at it with the Steam Machineits cube-shaped desktop console (or PC, depending on how you look at it) designed to bring the entire Steam library to your living room. The company presented it in November 2025 along with the new Steam Controller now the virtual reality glasses Steam Frameforming its own hardware ecosystem that revolves around Steam OS. Regarding its launch, however, things are still not going as well as Valve would have wanted. The global RAM memory crisis and components has disrupted its plans, delaying both the price and the final date. Despite this, the machinery is already in motion, because at least we already have the Steam Controller on sale and, according to Valve’s latest update, the console aims for release this summer. Below these lines we tell you everything that is known to date about the Steam Machine. What exactly is the Steam Machine? The Steam Machine is not a normal console, but a compact cube-shaped PC that runs SteamOS, Valve’s operating system based on Linux. The idea is that it works like a console (you plug it into the TV, take the controller and play), but with the flexibility of a computer underneath. It is, in essence, the tabletop older sister of the Steam Deck. In fact, Pierre-Loup Griffais, SteamOS developer, compared the experience with that of playing a Steam Deck connected to the dock, only with much more graphical muscle. Valve estimates that the Steam Machine offers about six times the power of the Steam Deck. Unlike the 2015 attempt (which depended on external manufacturers and never caught on), this time Valve has developed everything in-house: hardware, software and accessories. When is the Steam Machine released? This has been the great unknown for months. When it was announced in November 2025, Valve was talking about an “early 2026” release window for all three devices. However, the component crisis forced the company to be more cautious, starting to talk first about the “first half of 2026.” However, Valve has calmed the waters and in an official publication in Steam they assured that both the Steam Machine and the Steam Frame They will arrive this summer of 2026. It did so by expanding its Verified program to include both devices, where the company itself stated that both devices will go on sale during the summer. The Steam Controller was ahead of the rest and hit the market on May 4, 2026 for 99 euros. Valve decided to release its controller first, in part, to not force PC users to wait for the console and, according to explained Steve Cardinali, the company’s hardware engineer, because the controller does not depend on the RAM memory, which is strangling the production of the rest of the catalog. How much will the Steam Machine cost? Valve has not yet announced an official price, and The reason is directly linked to the memory and storage crisis. The company has acknowledged that the escalation in component prices has precisely delayed the confirmation of the cost. What Valve has dropped is its pricing philosophy. And the idea is to be in the range that it would cost to assemble a PC in parts with equivalent performance. In the initial presentation it was estimated that, due to the components it includes, the console could cost around $700. The problem is that, since then, DRAM prices have soared more than 170% year-on-yearas the VGC medium recalled, which makes it difficult to maintain any previous figure. Added to this is the information from journalist Mike Straw, from Insider Gaming, who point because Valve has been debating internally about the price and whether it would be willing to sell the device at a loss, at least in the short term. There will be two models depending on storage (512 GB and 2 TB), so a price range is foreseeable. Likewise, any number should be taken with caution until the official announcement. What specifications does the Steam Machine have? Image: IGN Inside, the Steam Machine features custom-designed AMD hardware. These are the specifications that Valve has confirmed: CPU: Semi-customized AMD Zen 4 with 6 cores and 12 threads, with a frequency of up to 4.8 GHz and a TDP of just 30 watts. GPU: Semi-custom AMD RDNA 3 with 28 compute units (CUs) and sustained clock speed up to 2.45 GHz, accompanied by 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM. RAM memory: 16 GB of DDR5 (independent of VRAM, unlike the unified memory of the Steam Deck). Storage: NVMe SSD in 512 GB or 2 TB versions, expandable via microSD slot. The SSD goes in an M.2 slot accessible in the base. Performance goal: 4K at 60 FPS relying on AMD’s FSR scaling, with support for ray tracing. Refrigeration: a single 120 mm fan. Feeding: source integrated into the chassis, without external thief. Regarding its positioning, it is advisable to moderate expectations. Valve counted that The console will have the price of an entry-level gaming PCavoiding selling it as a graphic beast. Its advantage over the current generation of consoles is in the architecture, since Zen 4 and RDNA 3 They are much more modern than the Zen 2 and RDNA 2 that they mount PS5 and Xbox Series. The route designed for 4K, of course, involves generating the image at an internal resolution close to 1440p and scaling it using FSRmore than by moving that resolution natively. What design and size does it have? Image: Tom’s Hardware The Steam Machine is a compact black cube that measures approximately 156 x 152 x 162 mm and weighs about 2.6 kg, designed to go unnoticed under the television. In The front incorporates a customizable removable plate and a configurable LED stripin addition to the USB-A ports and the microSD slot. Video, network and power connectivity is concentrated behind it, next to the fan grill. According to they count from GamersNexus, that faceplate is magnetic plastic and … Read more

The Steam Deck OLED went on the market for 569 euros. Three years later it costs 35% more for an obvious reason

by

Since the Steam Deck is in stores, we are witnessing the most hardware era from Valve in many years. And of course, entering this swamp has its pluses and minuses. After months of irregular availability, Valve’s portable console is returning to the shelves. The problem is that it has done so with a considerable price increase: more than 40% in both models. It is another example that today, being an early adopter pays off. what has happened. Valve has updated the prices of the Steam Deck OLEDits only range since it retired the LCD model half a year ago. The 512 GB model goes from 569 to 779 euros, while the 1 TB model goes up from 679 to 919 euros. They are 210 and 240 euros more expensive, respectively. In the United States the rise is even more prominent, increasing its cost by more than 40%. If there is any good news that we can get from this, it is that both models are once again available to buy on Steam after a long season of intermittent stock. Valve’s justification. The company has in a brief official statement that “these new prices reflect the current state of component costs and other global logistics challenges across the industry.” That is, you pay more for exactly the same device that existed a few months ago. The real culprit: RAM. Behind all this is rising memory prices. The cost of RAM has skyrocketed in recent months due to the enormous demand from large technology companies, which They are building data centers for their artificial intelligence projects at a frenetic pace. This has led to widespread memory and storage shortages affecting the entire industry. It is not an isolated case. Valve is the latest manufacturer to join a worrying trend. nintendo recently announced a price increase for the Switch 2citing precisely the “recent rebound in the prices of memory and other components.” sony It has also gone through several climbs price since the release of PS5 and Microsoft He has also done the same with Xbox Series on more than one occasion. The outlook, in general, is complicated. And it is that according to Circana datathe average price of new hardware in the United States has gone from $235 in November 2019 to $439 in November 2025. That the 1 TB Steam Deck now costs more than a PS5 Pro It’s pretty crazy. What this changes. The Steam Deck was born as a clever cheap gateway to the portable gaming PC, an alternative that has even ended casting doubt on the future viability of gaming on Windows. With this increase, it is no longer that economical option, especially since there is no longer an LCD model. And now, with the most expensive base model, the Nintendo Switch 2 curiously becomes the cheapest alternative for those looking for a portable console, despite its recent price increase and all. And now what. After the rise, now what everyone wants to know is what will happen to the price of the Steam Machine and the Steam Framehardware that Valve intends to launch this year. The company finds itself in a complicated situation in this regard, especially in a context of supply problems. At the time, those responsible for the console they said that it would cost something “more in line with what could be expected from the current PC market.” Given what we have seen with the Steam Deck, now we have more doubts than ever. In Xataka | Project Helix is ​​the new Xbox machine and the warning is clear: it is not going to be cheap

Much of the world economy right now consists of setting up data centers. And there is already a game on Steam that simulates it

by

Surely what you want most when you come back from work is to turn on your PC or console to play a work game. There is not an ounce of sarcasm in this phrase, since for some time now games that are about that, about working, have become popular. And I don’t mean a ‘stardew valley‘ farm management or a ‘Animal Crossing‘mortgage payment: I mean games that are, directly, a second job. There are cleanof be an IT in a company, as a worker supermarket or of construction worker. Also being in charge of a data centerclear. With all the boom in data centers that have drunk the ram market and SSDs, it is possible that you can’t build a PC new because RAM is through the roofbut you can always fulfill the fantasy of being that person who has the power to set up servers and wire everything in their hands. Is called ‘Data Center‘, and as a game to learn how data centers work and turn off your brain, it is… interesting. The game of having an after-work job setting up data centers Don’t think of this game as a construction game like ‘The Sims‘ and the like. Here you already have the space and what you should do is internal management. You must buy the frames to install the racks, servers and switches, but not crazy, but depending on the needs of the clients who hire your services. Once you have the equipment, it is time to interconnect them with the Ethernet cables that link systems within the same rack, but that must also physically go to other platforms. The easiest thing is to pass those cables through aluminum structures hanging from the ceiling, and once you think you have everything ready, it’s time to turn it on. This is when your customers’ traffic is represented by light balls that travel along the cables. Those little balls have their reason because as things progress, Your clients will ask for more and more bandwidthand you will have to start managing and prioritizing. Equipment also breaks, so you will have to go to the PC to order spare parts or upgrades to have greater computing capacity. The idea is to create the perfect system with the best possible data flow, without bottlenecks and without wasting resources, carefully scaling to offer each client what they need and not oversizing. Those little balls represent data traffic. Each color is a customer It is, in short, a work game that can be repetitive, but that is why it works so well. In this type of titles you do not have to solve puzzles, You don’t have to be skillful with the controls or think too much. They are ideal for turning off the brain while we do a repetitive task and simply focus on what we have to do and what clients ask of us. It sounds like the most boring thing in the world, that second job that I mentioned at the beginning of the article, but they are perfect games to turn off the brain while we have a podcast in the background or something like that. In the comments of this particular ‘Data Center’, players highlight the “teaching” aspect and, despite the limitations of some systems, how realistic it feels. The store from which we must order the components Now, it is not a simulator. In the comments, players who claim to work in data centers point out that, although it is curious and represents some things very well, there are others that do not fit reality and technical options are missing such as VLAN systems or managing something as basic as power cabling. The best thing is that it costs nine euros and, if you don’t click on the first two, you can request a refund on Steam very easily. In the end, it is not a game for everyone. No game is, really.but ‘Data Center’ is one more of that much talked about wave of work games that is appearing recently. Because managing a data center may not be your thing, but for example, restore retro games or manage the latest video store of the city before Amazon eats it. Images | ‘Data Center’ on Steam In Xataka | It seemed like a game of imitating movements. It was actually diagnosing autism better than many clinical tests

If you downloaded the wrong game on Steam a year ago, now the FBI is looking for you. And yes, it’s the real FBI

by

By now, we have all learned to distrust a little of what we see on the internet. Alarmist messages, supposedly official warnings, stories that sound too serious to be true. Therefore, if someone tells us that the FBI could be looking for people for having downloaded a game on Steam, the normal thing is to think that it is another hoax and move on. However, in this case it is worth stopping for a second, because what we see before us does not fit into that usual pattern. The advertisement. As Mein-MMO explainswhat we know part of a clear warning from the FBI itselfwhich has launched an investigation to identify users who may have been affected after installing certain games on Steam. Specifically, the Seattle division notes that these titles included malwaresomething that would have gone unnoticed by those who downloaded them. The time frame is broad, from May 2024 to January 2026, and that is where the agency believes the activity was concentrated. When Valve has to confirm it. The curious thing about this case is that the communication itself with users has had to overcome an obvious barrier, mistrust. Several users on Reddit point out that Valve sent messages to those who may have been affected to inform them of the investigation, but added a clarification that is unusual in this type of notice. The message said: “We can confirm that the message and the linked website are, in fact, from the FBI.” It is not a minor detail, because it reflects the extent to which the context can seem suspicious even when it is legitimate. What games are reached? The FBI has been narrowing the case down to a series of games. Besides, Bitdefender describes them as indie titles with little visibility within the platform, something that could have made it easier for them to go unnoticed for longer. The games mentioned so far are the following: BlockBlasters Chemia Dashverse/DashFPS Lampy Lunara PirateFi Tokenova What were they really looking for?. At this point, it is important to understand what type of threat the cybersecurity sources that have analyzed the case describe. According to the aforementioned cybersecurity firm, we would be facing what is known as an “information stealer“, a type of program designed to collect sensitive data from the device without the user realizing it. Among the information it could extract are credentials stored in the browser, authentication cookies that keep sessions open in different services or even data linked to cryptocurrency wallets. The steps to follow. The agency is asking those who believe they may have been affected to fill out a form specific to provide information to the investigation. As detailed by the agency itself, the responses are voluntary, but they can serve to identify victims of a federal crime and, in some cases, provide access to services, restitution and rights provided for by law. The FBI also adds that the identity of the victims will be kept confidential. Images | FBI | Compagnons In Xataka | There are people earning up to $600 a week talking to strangers. The goal: teach AI to sound human

the Tajogaite volcano has become an immense steam iron

by

Last Wednesday, while the storm therese discharged more than 117 liters per square meter in the Roque de los Muchachos, something striking was happening a few kilometers further down in the Tajogaite flows. Here the rainwater touched the ground and disappeared without accumulating, without forming puddles or running off. And it has an explanation: It evaporated the moment it hit the ground.turning the lava field into a kind of giant steam iron. A hot zone. But it is not that the La Palma volcano has been reactivated, but quite the opposite: it has been officially off since December 13, 2021. More than four years have passed, and yet the ground continues to burn from the inside. Because? To understand why, you have to think about how rock works as a material. The basaltic lava from Tajogaite, which is precisely what the volcano expelled during the 85 days it was erupting, came out to the outside at a temperature that could reach 1,200 degrees. This is double that of other volcanic compositions, such as andesitic, which is around 800 degrees. That 300 degree difference matters a lot when we talk about how long it takes to cool down. But the key factor in this case is not the temperature, but rather that the rock is a poor heat conducting material. In this way, the outer surface of the flow may be cold to the touch, even covered with vegetation in some places, while at a depth of 15 or 20 meters the temperatures have been exceeding 150 degrees Celsius until recently. In this way, when water falls, it is logical that it ends up evaporating. What’s underneath. What we see when it rains is actually the tip of the iceberg because beneath this there is a complex geological process. a study published in 2025 it generated for the first time a three dimensional map of the internal structure of the Tajogaite. In this way, they were able to see that under the crater there are areas with anomalies compatible with the presence of pockets and conduits where there is still trapped magma and gases. But logically this does not mean that the volcano will erupt again, but rather that the residual activity still lasts years later. When will it cool down? The most honest answer is that no one knows preciselysince it depends on too many simultaneous factors: the variable thickness of the casting at each point, the porosity of the rock or the ambient temperature are some of them. That is why each area is a different world when it comes to interpreting it. What is true is that the subsoil is going to cool little by little and the scenes that we have seen with this storm will theoretically diminish. The final result will be a completely new piece of land in Spain with a considerable extension that must continue to ‘mature’. Images | Annamarie Ursula rtvc In Xataka | Under the Canary Islands rests a 1,625 meter volcano: it has now begun to show signs of life after ten years of vigil

With the RAM market completely destroyed, Valve has a message to create the Steam Machine: “help”

by

Valve is not having any luck in the hardware world. If with software it is the undisputed queen of the PC ecosystem thanks to Steamwhen they try to launch a console things don’t go so smoothly. More than a decade ago they already tried it with some first Steam Machines that they had no identity. Now they have returned to the fray with a Steam Machine that it looks very goodbut it comes at the worst time. And in the middle of the RAM memory crisisValve only has one thing to say. Aid. The crisis. At Xataka we have been covering the RAM memory news because, although it seems that it is a crisis of a specific component, it is really something that It is affecting the entire industry of semiconductors… and consumption. If in 2020 it was a perfect storm What caused the semiconductor crisis is now the enormous demand for RAM by AI companies. They are all building gigantic data centers and there is a problem: there is only three big RAM manufacturers (plus a fourth that is emerging in China) and all of them have focused on creating RAM for data center equipment. The consequence is that there is no RAM for anyone else. And this not only affects RAM as such: it affects the price of cell phones, computers, cars and even to the router. And, of course, to the Steam Machine. Hey kid, do you have RAM? Valve announced its new machine at the end of last year and they targeted early 2026 to give a release date and price. The problem is that the days were passing, the price of RAM was rising and the question arose: What about Steam Machine? Well what happens is that Valve is desperate. They have already said that it will be released this year (in principle it was going to be spring), it seems that it will be expensive and, in addition, they have pointed directly to the crisis in the supply problems they are having with his other console, the Steam Deck. With this panorama, Valve has appeared at the GDC fair to explain its vision of the console/PC and, in an environment full of manufacturers and professionals, launched a request to the public: If you have access to a large amount of RAM, we are in the market and we would like to buy it.” Complicated. It is a humorous comment, but also somewhat symptomatic. Valve has the money as punishment, but it is not even close to being a premium customer of those few foundries capable of creating RAM. If even Apple can have a bad time, being the second client of the giant TSMCValve does not even enter the annex in the memory request sheet. There are analyzes of all kinds about the consequences of this crisis. In it mobile market will feel a strong bloweven targeting manufacturers that will have to stop launching devices due to market conditions. But on PC, things are more or less the same, with global shipments forecast to be 11% less than the previous year. Captain after the fact. It’s no longer that the Steam Machine may or may not come out, it’s that if it does come out, it would be very expensive. It is something similar to what would happen with the rumored PlayStation 6 that could have seen the light this year and about which we already know that we will not have news in the short term. And here the big question may arise: why didn’t Valve release the Steam Machine when they announced it? Obviously, there were units prepared because they were shown to the press and, furthermore, it is not cutting-edge hardware, so it would have been easy to have it on the market in November 2025. But of course, the situation escalated at a dizzying pace and launching a console at X price and two months later raising it by 200 euros due to the price of RAM or, even worse, stopping selling it because you don’t have units available would have been a tremendous blow. Not so much to the coffers, which in the end with Steam they get a good pinch, but to the reputation. And it is clear that a second disastrous launch of a Steam Machine is something that Valve cannot afford. Now we just have to wait to see when they will be able to launch the machine and, above all, if the price corresponds to components that have already been available for five months. they seemed somewhat fair to us for the most demanding games. Images | DOTA2 The International In Xataka | The price of RAM has skyrocketed and the best example to see the debacle is a 100 euro PC: the Raspberry Pi

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.