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Russia has shown on video how to hunt drones with shotguns. And he has also revealed what he did not want us to see

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During the years of Russian invasion of Ukraine we had seen many tactics that copied techniques and weapons from the past. For example, the use of the Davis cannon of the First World War, or the application of anchored shotguns on airplane wings. In fact, the use of shotguns and rifles from the last century has become a normalized scenario over the months due to the lack of modern artillery. Russia has now shown in a video how to hunt drones. Although he has also inadvertently revealed another detail. Shotguns in the front. The silent battle that is fought every day between Russian boats and swarms of FPV drones in the Dnieper has revealed now one of the most unexpected tactical turns of the war: the resurrection of the shotgun as a survival tool on a battlefield dominated by sensors, radio waves and munitions costing just a few hundred dollars. The viral sequence recorded from the helmet of a Russian marine, it offers a deceptively heroic portrait of a crew sailing at full speed through narrow channels while shooting down drone after drone (up to 13), although the meticulous analysis of each fragment shows that the initial epic falls apart as soon as the details are examined and what is behind it is understood: a fragmented combat, recorded on different days, in which the probable casualties are left out of the shot and where the electronics have as much weight as the shots. The mirage of the mission. They counted it analysts at Forbes. What seems like a single continuous episode in reality It’s a montage of multiple confrontations, where the sky changes color between shots and where the marines shoot at both real threats and invisible threats, lost among interference and gusts of wind. The barge sails while three shooters with semi-automatic shotguns, an automatic rifle and a light machine gun try to keep at bay drones that explode at the slightest contact. Thirteen devices fall, but the editing hides both the failures and the side effects. Two explosions centimeters from the hull leave doubts about possible injuries that are never shown, while a revealing detail (a Marine who already has a tourniquet placed preventively on his thigh) speaks of very specific expectations: the probability of being hit is not a hypothesis, but an assumed fact. Elite unit supported by electronic warfare. Forehead to the ‘Mobiks’ sent to slaughter with weeks of instruction and precarious material, this unit stands out for modern equipmentfor the shooting discipline and for the hidden arsenal that really explains part of their survival: a antenna constellation electronic warfare mounted on the boat. These inhibitors, with a range of between 50 and 100 meters, turn many drones into uncontrolled projectiles that fall by pure gravity. The shotgun just finish what electronics has already weakened. In an environment where FPV munitions explode even when the operator loses signal, the difference between living or dying depends not solely on aiming, but on the ability to blind the drone before it gets too close. That is why the shots show drones collapsing far from the effective range of the shooters: they did not fall due to an accurate shot, but due to interference. The limits of the shotgun. That a shotgun can take down an FPV at close range is so true as misleading. The scene has fueled a narrative of false confidence that the soldiers themselves deny off camera. There are testimonies of teams that five drones were shot down followed to fall before the sixth when they ran out of ammunition, or patrols that aimed and fired until the last cartridge before a device entered through the window and destroy the vehicle. If you like, the arms industry has also adapted: Benelli already produces models specific “anti-drone”equipped with tungsten ammunition, and foreign donors have sent hundreds of semi-automatic shotguns to Ukrainian units. But the tactical principle does not change: a shotgun does not compete with the mass production of drones. It is a desperate tool to gain seconds in an environment where each drone costs less than a box of ammunition and where both armies manufacture them by the millions. Desperate defense. He video ends with the boat rescuing another group of marines: one is wounded, others advance with two weapons in their hands, and the scene, far from glorifying the resistance, underlines the true tactical message. The shotgun works, yes, but only when the number of drones is small, when the shooters are trained, or when there are active inhibitors and when luck is on the side. The complete story, the one that never goes viral, remembers that for every boat that returns, another does not. In the Dnieper War, the shotgun is not a weapon of air supremacy: it is the final spark that is fired when all else has failed, a defense of last resort against a swarm cheap and numerous which is redesigning the way armies move, attack and survive. A shotgun may give you time, but in an FPV-saturated front, that time may not be enough. Image | RUSSIAN MOD In Xataka | Ukraine has just reduced what took days to two minutes. And then he began to crush the most feared Russian weapon: his kamikazes In Xataka | The new peace plan in Ukraine has been reduced to 19 aspects. The problem is that the key point measures 900 km

China had a tank more typical of science fiction. Now he has added a hypersonic missile in a video that attacks Japan

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China presented in August to the world a family of vehicles that broke with the classic logic of armored warfare: the Type 100 hybrid tank and its support vehicles ZBD-100. With barely 40 tons, these armored vehicles mix the lightness of a rapid deployment tank with an electronic architecture capable of converting them into nodes of a system hyperconnected combat. Now it has presented something more disturbing: a hypersonic missile aimed at a target. The Type 100 as a symbol. The robotic turret of the armored vehicles presented, their optical and laser sensors distributed throughout the hull and the fusion of data with drones and external radars give them a situational awareness which surpasses that of many Western cars. China does not seek to reproduce the heavy paradigm of the Abrams or the Leopard, but get ahead of him: Prioritizes sensors over armor, information on raw power, mobility over mass and active survivability against direct fire. His GL-6 system active protection, based on AESA radars that monitor an entire hemisphere, represents this new philosophy: in a battlefield saturated by drones, mines and loitering missiles, armor is no longer measured in centimeters of steel, but in milliseconds of electronic reaction. And more. The autonomy of its attack modules, the use of loads capable of imitating the power of the Abrams despite the smaller caliber and the incorporation of kamikaze drones from the support vehicles point to an ecosystem expressly conceived for contemporary war. He Type 100 also shows the Chinese commitment to lighter platforms that can operate in mountains, rice fields or coastlines, with less demanding logistics and easier to deploy near Taiwan or in possible points of friction with India. Overall, this armored vehicle reflects a theoretical break: China is betting on complete computerization of land combat and the massive use of distributed systems that share data in real time, something that can be decisive if it can be reliably integrated into doctrine and training. Type 100 The leap: low-cost hypersonics. Now, private company Lingkong Tianxing’s announcement that it is already mass manufacturing YKJ-1000 hypersonic missiles at a cost equivalent to 10% of a conventional missile It represents a profound alteration of the military balance in the Asia-Pacific. The fact that a private actor has entered into the systematic production of Mach 5-7 weapons points an industrial transition important: China is moving the frontier of war innovation outside of state monopolies, accelerating technological cycles and reducing prices to levels unthinkable for equivalent programs in the United States, where long-range hypersonics around 40 million dollars per unit. A clear threat. The YKJ-1000 not only stands out for its speed and its range of up to 1,300 kilometers, enough to cover the entirety of Japan from northern China, but also for its architecture autonomy-oriented: detection, target selection, defense evasion and evasive maneuvers in mid-flight. Its ability to travel inside standard shipping containers makes it a weapon hidden deploymentdispersible and easily moved by road or ship, adding strategic uncertainty in any crisis scenario. Plus: the images that close the promotional video (several missiles flying towards targets in Japan) constitute an unmistakable message in the midst of increasing regional tensions. The promise of a future version with integrated artificial intelligence anticipates a generation of cheap, extremely fast missiles designed to overwhelm or deceive defensesgenerating a new family of threats that could multiply in numbers that current anti-aircraft systems are simply not prepared to absorb. Frame from the missile video Japan, Taiwan and an escalation. The appearance of the YKJ-1000 comes at a time when relations between China and Japan are going through its most delicate phase in a decade. The statements of the new Japanese Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, hinting at a military response if Taiwan were attacked, have been interpreted in Beijing as a strategic shift of enormous significance. It we have counted: China has responded with travel advisories, flight cancellations and a public campaign suggesting Tokyo is getting dangerously close. to a red line. For Japan, China’s accelerated militarization is not an abstract phenomenon: it is a direct challenge to its sea routes, its energy security and its commitment to deterrence in the Taiwan Strait. For China, on the other hand, Japan is an actor that can decisively influence the American presence in the region. An intimidating missile. In this context, the massive deployment of the YKJ-1000 (capable of reaching bases in Okinawa, Kyushu or Hokkaido in minutes) takes on a obvious political component: It is a weapon designed both to operate and to intimidate. Furthermore, the mobile container system complicates pre-detection, while the multiplication of low-cost hypersonic platforms increases the pressure on Tokyo to reinforce anti-missile systems which, even in their most advanced configuration, were designed for slower, more predictable threats. He result is a spiral in which Japan accelerates its rearmament, the United States reinforces its air and naval presence and China responds by further expanding its panoply of both conventional and hypersonic missiles. Armored and missiles in it ship. What makes these developments more than isolated advances is their internal coherence. So much the Type 100 as the YKJ-1000 They reflect the same emerging doctrine: war based on saturation, speed, autonomy and distributed networks. The tank is not just a vehicle, it is a sensory node capable of sharing data with drones, radars and aerial platforms. And the hypersonic missile is not just a projectile, it is a mobile, cheap and difficult to intercept weapon designed to exploit vulnerabilities in complex systems. China is incorporating into its planning the idea that future conflicts will be decided by the ability to integrate sensors, automate decisions, and generate waves of simultaneous threats that outpace the adversary’s response. An island in the background. Thus, in a hypothetical attack on Taiwan, or in a limited confrontation with Japan, this synergy could allow China to combine computerized ground forces with hypersonic attacks of saturation intended to degrade enemy defenses, air bases and command nodes in the first minutes of the crisis. An explosive … 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

A new futuristic Chinese drone has just appeared on the scene. Beijing has shown it in a video without saying a single word

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China has decided to show its new stealth drone in the most direct way possible: iincluding it in an official video and letting the image speak for itself. The device appears rolling from a hangar and forming with two J-20, a gesture that does not require subtitles to capture attention. It is an austere presentation, almost silent, but full of intention. The movement that changes reading. The official video published by the chinese air force for its 76th anniversary, it combines historical images with recent scenes, following a format that the institution has used for years. It is a simple production piece, focused on showing some of the advances that they consider relevant at this stage. Within this general route, the final section incorporates material that until now had not been seen on official channels, among them the inclusion of the GJ-11. It is a drone that belongs to the category of flying wing stealth platforms, a design that China has been researching for years and that fits with long-distance attack missions and surveillance tasks. What is known comes from sightings at test bases and analysis of their configuration, since Beijing has not published technical specifications. Some analysts interpret that its size and architecture allow prolonged flights, but that information is not part of official statements. Is it already operational? The official video does not confirm that the GJ-11 is in service, but it does fit with the indications that point to a program in an advanced phase. In recent months there have appeared at least three units in Shigatse, an active site where China tests systems in real scenarios. The inclusion of the drone in institutional material adds another element to the chronology, although by itself it is not enough to affirm that its operational deployment is a reality. The key doubts. Despite the relevance of the video, the Chinese Air Force has not offered details about the capabilities, range, sensors or weapons of the GJ-11. There is also no data on its production rate or on possible contracts associated with the program. The footage confirms its form and activity, but does not clear up technical unknowns that allow us to understand its exact role within the operational structure. The absence of this information keeps the program partially in the shadows. The appearance of the GJ-11 in an official video does not dispel all doubts, but it does consolidate an idea: China wants the drone to be part of its public story without the need to communicate technical details. Between previous indications and recent material, the image that remains is that of an advanced program that advances at its own pace. Images | People’s Liberation Army Air Force (Weibo) In Xataka | They have just leaked Russia’s best kept secret: their “invisible” nuclear bomber has exploded into the air

13 premiere movies and series to watch in November 2025 on Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max and streaming

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The passing of Halloween has left us with a few interesting horror films in the catalogs of all platforms, but the next thing is coming, which is inevitably Christmas. Many of you will already be noticing how the romances of divorced women in sweaters are flooding streaming, but let’s try to abstract ourselves from that tempting little candy with a brief review of other attractive news for the month of November. That there is everything. Frankenstein Guillermo del Toro he has finally made his dream come true to adapt Mary Shelley’s canonical science fiction novel, while being both very faithful and very personal and in line with her usual obsessions. A monster different from the one we are used to in cinema, a mad scientist more deranged than usual and sumptuous settings and special effects that are the best of the show. That and the extraordinary incarnations of Jacob Elordi, Oscar Isaac and Mia Goth, of course. On Netflix November 7 Stranger Things S5 The final season of ‘Stranger Things’, which will premiere divided into three parts between November 2025 and January 2026, promises to bring an epic closure to the saga. Set in the fall of 1987, the city is scarred by the rifts open to the Upside Down, and the group is tasked with finding and eliminating Vecna, who is still alive. The government has placed the town under military quarantine, making the task difficult. The season will have 8 full length episodesalmost like feature films, and will bring the entire group together for one last decisive battle. We return to Hawkins for the last time! On Netflix on November 26 Vallecas File A documentary series in three episodes that reviews the most famous and high-profile poltergeist case in Spain, which occurred after a mysterious death in the Madrid neighborhood 35 years ago. The production explores unpublished archives, to which key testimonies are added to show the human drama behind the myth. The series delves into the limits between parapsychology, the poltergeist phenomenon and the power of suggestion, in a series that attempts to delve into the real case that inspired Paco Plaza’s film ‘Veronica‘. On HBO Max on November 7 ozzy: No Escape From Now A documentary that offers an intimate and unvarnished portrait of the last years of Ozzy Osbournelegendary leader of Black Sabbath, in which he had to face the physical deterioration caused by Parkinson’s and other ailments, cope with the awareness of his own mortality and the desire to return to the stage for the last time. Avoiding easy tears by showing Ozzy’s fragility and humor in the face of adversity, it gives a unique testimony of the last bars of the life of one of the last rock stars we had left. His influence is also reviewed with the appearance of figures such as Slash, James Hetfield, Billy Idol and Tom Morello. On Skyshowtime on November 2 The Paper When we first heard about the idea, we raised an eyebrow: was there really a need to invoke the spirit of ‘The Office’ in an entirely new series? But when the first reviews arrived, apparently everything was going well: without being ‘The Office’ (remember that in its first seasons ‘The Office’ was not ‘The Office’ either), Greg Daniels, creator of the original series, seems to have correctly invoked the spirit of the classic: the team that made the mockumentary of that series focuses this time on a historic paper newspaper and its editor, who tries to keep it afloat. On Skyshowtime on November 14 Bat-Fam Did you like the Christmas special movie?Merry Mini Bat Christmas‘? Average: the best thing to come out of DC in years, if you ask us. Now, their characters return with a look at the intimacy of the Wayne family, especially the heir to the Mantle, young Damian Wayne, but with a lot of new characters and old acquaintances, all passed through a delicious visual filter. Our favorite is clearly Man-Bat, so you’ll have to choose another one. On Prime Video on November 10 All of the law None other than Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts and Glenn Close share the cast with… Kim Kardashian. Only the prolific Ryan Murphy could give rise to such a concoction, with a series of legal intrigue that distances itself (partially, because its usual casting returns, Kardasian included) from the grotesque horrors of ‘American Horror Story’ and company. A kind of ‘Suits’ in a feminine key where a group of lawyers specialized in divorces leave a firm dominated by men to open their own office. ANDn Disney+ on November 4 The Fantastic Four: Firsts Steps Although it was not the revolution that many expected (and that Marvel needs), the new Fantastic Four movie has reinitiated the presence of these iconic heroes on screen with a fresher approach and more faithful to the essence of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s comic. Adventure, science fiction and light family drama combine in a film that benefits from dispensing with close ties to the rest of the world. MCUalthough it cannot escape the style, tone, humor and, above all, the closed structure without much oxygen of the rest of the house’s films. Still, great finds like the new introduction of Galactus and his herald Silver Surfer, as well as a very appropriate leading quartet. ANDn Disney+ on November 5 Jakarta Two proper names usually linked to comedy, Diego San José (‘Come Juan’, ‘Eight Basque surnames’, ‘Vaya semanita’) and Javier Cámaraenter this time into dramatic territory with a series about disenchantment and second chances: a former Olympic badminton player finds himself becoming a physical education teacher, and finds in a problematic but talented girl the possibility of achieving a lost dream. It is about competing in Jakarta, where this sport has prestige and can rediscover some of the glory of the past, in a sporting drama without an epic of winners. ANDn Movistar Plus+ on November 6 Anatomy of a moment Directed by Alberto Rodríguez and based on the … Read more

Many video AIs are learning to imitate the world. And everything points to an unprecedented “looting” of YouTube

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A square, tourists, a waiter moving between tables, a bike passing by in the background or a journalist on a set. Video AIs can now generate scenes in a flash. The result is surprising, but it also opens up a question that until recently was barely posed: where did all those images that have come from come from? allowed to learn to imitate the world? According to The Atlanticpart of the answer points to millions of videos pulled from platforms like YouTube without clear consent. The euphoria over generative AI has moved so quickly that many questions have been left behind. In just two years we have gone from curious little experiments to models that produce videos almost indistinguishable from the real thing. And while the focus was on the demonstrations, another issue was gaining weight: transparency. OpenAI, for example, has explained that Sora is trained with “publicly available” data, but has not detailed which one. A massive workout that points to YouTube The Atlantic piece gives a clear clue as to what was happening behind the scenes. We are talking about more than 15 million videos collected to train AI models, with a huge amount coming from YouTube without formal authorization. Among the initiatives cited are data sets associated with several companies, designed to improve the performance of video generators. According to the media, this process was carried out without notifying the creators who originally published that content. One of the most striking aspects of the discovery is the profile of the affected material. These were not just anonymous videos or home recordings, but informative content and professional productions. The media found that thousands of pieces came from channels belonging to publications such as The New York Times, BBC, The Guardian, The Washington Post or Al Jazeera. Taken together, we are talking about a huge volume of journalism that would have ended up feeding AI systems without prior agreement with their owners. runwayone of the companies that has given the most impetus to generative video, is highlighted in the reviewed data sets. According to the documents cited, their models would have learned with clips organized by type of scene and context: interviews, explanatory, pieces with graphics, kitchen plans, resource plans. The idea is clear: if AI must reproduce human situations and audiovisual narratives, it needs real references that cover everything from gestures to editing rhythms. Fragments of a video generated with the Runway tool In addition to Runway, the research mentions data sets used in laboratories of large technology platforms such as Meta or ByteDance in research and development of their models. The dynamic was similar: huge volumes of videos collected on the Internet and shared between research teams to improve audiovisual capabilities. YouTube’s official stance doesn’t leave much room for interpretation. Its regulations prohibit downloading videos to train modelsand its CEO, Neal Mohan, has reiterated it in public. The expectations of the creators, he stressed, involve their content being used within the rules of the service. The appearance of millions of videos in AI databases has brought that legal framework to the fore and has intensified pressure on platforms involved in the development of generative models. The reaction of the media sector has followed two paths. On the one hand, companies like Vox Media o Prisa have closed agreements to license their content to artificial intelligence platforms, looking for a clear framework and economic compensation. On the other hand, some media outlets have chosen to stand up: The New York Times has taken OpenAI and Microsoft to court for the unauthorized use of their materials, stressing that it will also protect the video content it distributes. The legal terrain remains unclear. Current legislation was not intended for models that process millions of videos in parallel, and courts are still beginning to draw the lines. For some experts, publishing openly is not equivalent to transferring training rightswhile AI companies defend that indexing and the use of public material are part of technological advancement. This tension, still unresolved, keeps media and developers in a constant game of balance. What we have before us is the start of a conversation that goes far beyond technology. Training AI models with material available on the internet has been a widespread practice for years, and now comes the time to decide where the limits are. Companies promise agreements and transparency, the media ask for guarantees and creators demand control. The next stage will be as technological as it is political: how artificial intelligence is fed will define who benefits from it. Images | Xataka with Gemini 2.5 In Xataka | All the big AIs have ignored copyright laws. The amazing thing is that there are still no consequences

YouTube is ready to launch the largest video reconstruction project in history. And yes, it will use AI

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YouTube was born in 2005 and, since then, it has become the largest audiovisual archive in recent history. For years, millions of users uploaded videos in 240p or 480p because that was what the cameras, connections and devices of the moment allowed. This material does not lose value because it has low resolution: there are extraordinary pieces that continue to be a reference. But today the screens are better, the sound matters more and that difference is noticeable. So now comes an attempt to update that experience without erasing the past. An ocean of videos. The YouTube catalog is not large: it is huge. The figures published by electroiq put the total at around 4.3 billion videos in 2025, after a stage in which the Shorts format It pushed the increases to levels never seen before. About 800 million were added in 2023 alone. That momentum has tempered, in part because of controls on repetitive content and a lower craze for short clips, but the trend remains. If the current pace continues, the service could surpass 10 billion videos before 2030. YouTube begins to “reconstruct” its videos. YouTube has announced that will begin to automatically improve videos uploaded in resolutions between 240p and 720p, raising them to HD quality using artificial intelligence. The process does not delete the original files or modify the base video: it is an alternative version visible under the “super resolution” label. Creators will be able to decide if they want it to be applied and viewers will retain the option to view the content in its original resolution. It is a measure that seeks to modernize the archive without altering its authenticity. Lens: 4K. The roadmap is clear. After starting with videos below 1080p, YouTube wants automatic enhancement also reach 4K resolutions “in the short term,” according to its announcement. To support that jump, heavier uploads are already being tested with some creators and thumbnails will also be able to reach 4K, thanks to the extension of the file limit from 2 MB to 50 MB. Everything points to an attempt by the platform to ensure that both the content and its presentation are at the level of current panels. The audio also goes up a notch. The modernization of the catalog does not stop at the visual. YouTube has also introduced automatic audio enhancements that adjust the mix and maintain a more consistent volume between different scenes. These automatic improvements are grouped under the “Stable volume“, which the viewer can activate or deactivate according to their preference. With this, the company seeks to prevent sound jumps from breaking the experience, something common in old videos or recordings with basic equipment. It will not be for all videos. YouTube clarifies that these improvements will not be applied indiscriminately. They will only affect videos uploaded in low resolution that have not been previously remastered to 1080p or higher. Additionally, as we already mentioned, creators can decide from YouTube Studio whether they want the platform to apply visual or audio enhancements to their future uploads. It is a measure that seeks to avoid unwanted distortions and give room to those who prefer to keep their content exactly as it was published. If these enhancements are disabled for the channel, viewers may not be able to use features such as “Stable volume” or “Super resolution” on that content. Upscaling no longer lives on your TV. Many televisions include their own systems to improve the image, but YouTube’s approach is different. Instead of applying upscaling on the device, the platform does it in the cloud, allowing it to process millions of videos consistently without depending on the user’s hardware. Additionally, the viewer can choose between the original playback or the enhanced version from the quality menu, with an option visible and explicit in the interface. Catalog, discovery, legacy. For creators, this update has an immediate benefit: they don’t need to re-upload old videos to make them look better on current screens. The file remains intact and the enhancement is applied as an additional layer, respecting the original. This can help valuable pieces from years ago gain presence, without altering their essence. The viewer, for their part, receives a more homogeneous experience and the possibility of choosing how to view each content. Images | Xataka with Gemini 2.5 | CardMapr In Xataka | NVIDIA has risen to the top for its AI data centers. Your next big leap: cars

How to turn your photos into video game scenarios like Nintendo with Nano Banana

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Let’s tell you how to turn a landscape photo into a video game screen. For example, you can turn a photo into a Super Mario or cell screen, all with a few prompts quite simple that you can use in Gemini, the artificial intelligence from Google. And why in Gemini and not in another AI like ChatGPT? Well, because Google has Free Nano Banana, a photo editing model. This model allows you to make modifications to photos while maintaining the content, and although we have already told you how to use it for photos of yourself, there are also curious things you can do with landscapes. Turn a photo into a video game landscape The first thing you have to do is choose a photo of a landscape or a building to transform. I think the result will always be better if it is a wide photo where not only the building appears, but also the surroundings, so that the video game screen you are going to create has more content. Now, you have to attach the photo to Gemini and add a prompt with the request of what you want to do with it. For example, you can use a prompt like this, but specifying the game you want: “Transform this image into a scene from the Nintendo video game Zelda” Can continue transforming the original photo without having to upload it again. To do this, you will have to continue repeating almost the entire prompt, but mentioning that you are referring to the original photo. For example, you can say, “Now transform the original photo into a scene from the video game Skyrim.” And with this, you can play with your photos and transform them into settings for the video game that you like the most. Don’t be afraid to experiment, and remember that you can ask me to add specific details like a dragon, a dinosaur, or whatever you can think of. In Xataka Basics | Gemini Image Editor: 16 Ways and Tricks to Squeeze Nano-banana with Google’s AI

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

Saudi Arabia is not buying EA for video games. He is buying cultural influence in hundreds of millions of homes

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An Arab sovereign background has just closed the greatest leverage purchase operation in history: 55,000 million dollars per electronic arts. Paying a 25% premium (in the normal fork), apparently without haggling (definitely abnormal). Closing the operation in record time. And nobody lifts an eyebrow. Because it is supposed to be “only video games.” But they are not “only video games”: It is the FC 26 Entering every week in the living room of 150 million homes, especially for its younger members. Is THE SIMS Teaching what a family, a career, an aspirational life is. Is Madden Nfl and Battlefield occupying Sunday afternoons and the nights during the Week of Medio Planet. Saudi Arabia has not bought a study but a more powerful cultural distribution channel than any television networkquieter than any advertising campaign, more effective than any Hollywood study. Let’s think about the concrete: In EA Sports FC, every year it is decided which goals to include, what flags appear in the stadiums, what social messages are integrated into the game, what role is granted to women’s football, what attire the fans carry. In the PREMs, it is defined what kind of relationships are possible and which are not, what professional careers are glamorized and which ones lose value, what constitutes “success” in simulated life. In Battlefield, it is chosen what historical conflicts represent, how it is portrayed to the Middle East, what factions are “the good”. These are not technical details. They are editorial decisions that mold the worldview of millions of players They spend hundreds of hours a year in these worlds. And when a company stops quoting in the stock market, those decisions are no longer publicly justified: There are no shareholders asking why certain flags of certain markets were eliminated. Do not explain why references to alcohol, to the game, to sex or certain lifestyles disappear in subsequent updates. There are no analysts questioning why certain conflicts are represented in a certain way. There are no quarterly reports that explain narrative changes. Only gradual, imperceptible adjustments, which normalize certain visions of the world. The Saudi fund has not gone for studies indie experimental or for niche games with political messages. Has gone for the more franchises mainstreamsafe and massive on the planet. The least questionable possible. He Soft Power more invisible that exists: entertainment so normalized that nobody wonders who is behind. He simply plays. And then there is the detail that goes unnoticed: they pay 25% premium on the closing price without blinking. They close in a few months when operations thus usually lengthened years. A traditional investment fund would have dribble each percentage point. I would have asked for more DUE Diligence. He would have negotiated to the last dollar. The Saudi PIF pays the premium and accelerates the closure. Because When your goal is not to maximize the return of the invested but maximize strategic influence, speed matters more than the price. Close before someone realizes what you are really buying. Microsoft has been consolidating the purchase of Blizzard Activision for two years. This goes quickly. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son -in -law, is in this operation, according to the Financial Timesand not by chance. Its background, Affinity Partners, He received 2,000 million from the Saudi Pif after leaving the White House. Now returns the favor: its presence converts a foreign purchase into an operation “led by Americans”, which reduces the scrutiny of the Foreign Investment Committee (CFIUS). While he appears as a consortium architect, the White House will see partners and not threats. It can be replicated that this is only economic diversification, petrodollars looking for return in entertainment. If so, why not buy Netflix, Disney or Spotify? Why specifically the sector where you can shake what millions of teenagers do for thousands of hours a year without appearing propaganda? The amazing thing is not that this happens. Soccer has accustomed us to Saudi laundering. The hallucinating thing is that almost nobody questions it. The best way to exercise power and influence is that it simply seems fun. LOOT Boxes And seasonal passes while nobody wonders who decides what to normalize in those worlds. And when you take out a stock market company (what will happen with EA), you eliminate the quarterly transparency obligation, you no longer have to account for western scrutiny shareholders and you can make subtle adjustments that no one will detect until it is too late. Nothing scandalous. Only small changes in narratives, representations, progression systems that, multiplied by 500 million players for years, move entire cultural needles. That is the perfect conquest. In Xataka | This game has been scheduled by only one person, and there is already talk of him as one of the great Shooters of the year Outstanding image | Xataka

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