gigi

@benhumpert @Zoroarts @Steam @valvesoftware No, we dont need to shit-ify one of the best and pro consumer things we have in gaming. This game is an edge case. Some 20 yrs old made a 1h long game and some people refund it. Though shit. Get over it. The system doesnt need to change for the worse because a college kid cried

@Zoroarts @Steam I have read many comments here and elsewhere. I'd suggest @valvesoftware to append a "% played" limit to the refund window. If a customer has played more than x % of a product, a refund is no longer possible (without a very good reason).

This should not be possible @Steam Would be cool if you could finally do something about your refund policy... Got dozens of reviews like that and 21% refund rate even though the Reviews are 90% very positive... Thats over 55,000 Refunds btw...

@Lord_Alucard_V @superhys @alineaanalytics alineaanalytics.substack.com/p/our-most-req… 10% margin of error for 750 games released in 2025. This is what market research is. Morons from reera and other places both dont understand how things work and they hate that PC is almost always 1st instead of their shit consoles. As if thats Alinea fault

@superhys @alineaanalytics So... Alinea Abalytics right now is a truth source? 🤡 What happen when they show us the numver of Yotei y Saros? 😂🤣

Astro Bot has sold 4.3M copies, generating around $250M for PlayStation (@alineaanalytics estimates). The budget is likely under $100M, including marketing, so that's A LOT of profit. But Astro could also be a Trojan horse for PlayStation to reach an audience it's mostly conceded to Nintendo, if Sony can stick the landing and nurture Astro right. Despite a somewhat slow start by first-party standards, Astro won Game of the Year at @geoffkeighley's @thegameawards (boosting sales considerably, see the spike at the end of December there) and has in the past year become a proper evergreen seller. As covered in the Alinea Substack yesterday, Astro has shifted over 600K copies this year alone as per our estimates (almost $33M) and is still selling 100K a month well over a year after launch. Every single month this year, Astro Bot's top crossover game is Astro's Playroom, the thing pre-installed on every PS5. So two things are happening: new PS5 owners are buying Astro Bot in droves, and that free pack-in is doing a banging job of turning them into buyers. Every month, the #2, #3, and #4 crossovers are, without fail, Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft. So beyond the PS-diehard buyers who propped up the launch, Astro's true, evergreen demographic has been kiddos and families. That demo has been a huge gap in PlayStation's first-party repertoire. RIP Sackboy. Now, Astro Bot is quietly turning into one of PlayStation's only successfulfamily-friendly brands in the modern era, and I reckon Sony's only getting started. I'd bet on a film or TV announcement before long, Astro-ified PlayStation characters and all. In yesterday's SEC filing, Sony said it plans to further expand its films and TV shows based on PlayStation game IP. I'd also put money on an Astro sequel sooner than you'd think, timed around the incoming PlayStation handheld, which I'd wager Playroom ends up on too (as covered, that funnel has worked wonders). Team Asobi works fast and lean: Astro Bot took about 60 people three years, as per @Chris_Dring at @thegamebusiness (subscribe!!!). We're coming up to two years since Astro launched. Astro is IDEAL for a handheld: it's pick-up-and-play, visually showcases the hardware, and demonstrates the DualSense features Sony loves to show off. It's basically Sony's Wii Sports. They almost have to do it. It's no Mario, sure, but PlayStation's been chasing the family crowd for ages with not much to show for it, a few decent swings aside. Astro's the first real crack in that door. If Sony keeps growing the brand, Astro's a perfect on-ramp into the rest of the PlayStation catalogue, which is exactly what LEGO Horizon Adventures was meant to be and, by our estimates, sadly clearly wasn't. Maybe Astro Bot ends up being what that game never managed. Sorry, Herman! If I were Sony, I'd lean on that momentum HARD in the handheld marketing. There's a real chance to breathe life back into Ratchet & Clank and other IP gathering dust, and an obvious fit for PS Plus while they're at it. Once the brand's had a bit more love, an Astro: Horizon or Astro: Uncharted could be a brilliant way to nudge players toward the bigger stuff once they're ready to move past platformers. Astro Bot and Astro's Playroom have already done the groundwork. So yeah, the pieces are all there: the brand, the funnel, the timing, a handheld that's crying out for a mascot. Sony just has to not fumble it.

@solspun2 @superhys @vicious696 @alineaanalytics how do you know ?

@superhys @vicious696 @alineaanalytics I assure you it’s not 4.3M .

📉 The Balkans are shrinking. Population change from 2000 to 2026: 🇷🇴 Romania: 22.1M → 19.0M (-3.1M) 🇧🇬 Bulgaria: 8.1M → 6.5M (-1.6M) 🇷🇸 Serbia: 7.5M → 6.5M (-1.0M) 🇭🇷 Croatia: 4.4M → 3.8M (-0.6M) 🇬🇷 Greece: 10.9M → 10.4M (-0.5M) 🇧🇦 Bosnia: 3.8M → 3.3M (-0.5M) 🇦🇱 Albania: 3.1M → 2.7M (-0.4M) 🇽🇰 Kosovo: 1.9M → 1.8M (-0.1M) 🇲🇪 Montenegro: 0.62M → 0.63M (stable) 🇸🇮 Slovenia: 2.0M → 2.1M (+0.1M) 🇲🇰 N. Macedonia: 2.0M → 2.1M (+0.1M) Emigration + low birth rates = a region quietly emptying out. 🌍

@Al_Pacinoo__ @superhys @alineaanalytics Steam has around 210M monthly active users and around 300M yearly. That 132M figure is half a decade old. We can infer the current numbers from the daily active users which steam shows

@superhys @alineaanalytics Hi Rhys. The numbers on regions always get me thinking: how much of Steam’s ~130M active users are from China vs “the West”?

007 First Light has sold 2.2M copies across platforms (@alineaanalytics estimates), mostly via PlayStation. That's sold through, so no unsold retail copies. The platform split is 55.1% PS5, 33.1% Steam, and 11.8% Xbox ( Xbox console, Windows, and cloud combined). In gross revenue terms, 007 First Light has generated $150M. Owing to regional pricing and audience composition differences, the consoles make up a higher share of revenue than they do copies. Of the $150M, 60.5% came via PlayStation, 27.6% via Steam, and 12.9% via Xbox. Part of this is because over two-thirds of 007 First Light‘s PS5 audience is in North America (43.4%) or Western Europe (23.2%), where local currency means the game generates more revenue per player. On Steam, under half of First Light‘s audience is from those same regions (31.8% North America, 15.1% Western Europe). As we covered in last week’s 007 Steam piece, the Steam version is pulling in higher-than-expected numbers in China, which now accounts for 17.3% of First Light‘s Steam audience. 007 is the equivalent of $44 USD in China, which is roughly 37% cheaper than the US price and about 44% cheaper than Western Europe. More on today's new free Substack (link's in the bio!)

@Domuru_ @superhys @alineaanalytics These guys are doing market intelligence, same as all other analystics firms, where they take several public data points and get an educated estimation based on them. It is never meant to be official or 100% exact. Its supposed to show you a trend and a ballpark. Which it does

@Domuru_ @superhys @alineaanalytics Where's the "big" difference ? It's 6 days vs 7 for one. And what these guys are doing are estimations. It doesnt have to be bullet proof. 2.2M after 6 days i'd have raised at 2.5 for 7. Which is perfectly in the ballpark, which is what an estimation is meant to give you

@RiotRMD Very poor choice from R. When all your games outside MP1 didnt sell well, you're self sabotaging in this manner, for no gain at all.

@AbuFajerr Yes.

Hands on impressions are coming quite soon. Hello from Los Angeles. We are also going to Mexico City, São Paulo, Warsaw, Berlin and London in the coming weeks to give content creators and press hands on with CONTROL Resonant. We’ve been working on this the entire year. Setting this up all on our own has been a mammoth effort. Very excited to have folks get a good feel for the game and combat especially.

@cankulahcioglu @arquivocurioso worldometers.info/population/eur…

Se você fosse obrigado a viver o resto de sua vida em um país do leste europeu, qual você escolheria?

@handleym99 @Corbienest something so moronic can only come from a USian. You think moving though the same country is more different than going to a different country, with diff history, language, people, laws, customs and life ? Proximity and distance means nothing, but you can't know this w/o traveling

More importantly, I think Americans travel to genuinely *more different* places. And do so even if they stay within America. Europeans seems to think they've seen the world if they've gone from Britain to Spain, or Germany to Italy. And then tweet insane things about temperature. Meanwhile pretty much every American has been to the (serious) desert, been to the (serious) mountains, is at least aware of what Florida is like, and Minnesota, Texas and Oregon. And is as interested in visiting Asia as in seeing Europe.

Fun fact. The average American (70%) have traveled outside of their home country. This is also true of the average member of the EU (although slightly lower at about 65%). Another fun fact. The average person living in the EU lives closer to an international airport and to an international train station. In fact most Europeans live within just a few miles of an international train station. In some places in the US the closest airport is over 200 miles away and in many places the closest international train station is over 1000 miles away. Logistically and financially it’s very easy to visit another country if you’re in the EU compared to the US, and yet we do it slightly more.

@grok @CernyLibor @onlmaps This is just the funniest shit ever. Im sure in another 10 attempts you'll trick grok into making you western. But the entire planet is forever gonna call every one of the former warsaw pact countries eastern europe. Maybe you'll accept this in another 50 years

@CernyLibor @onlmaps

What different Eastern European countries call themselves to avoid the "Eastern Europe" label (by u/TheGamer_on_YT)

@denisyurchak It was like this in Ro,in the 90s.Sunday everything closed.Early evening during the week.Hated it profoundly as a kid.Always feeling like you cant have an emergency or a need outside "store hours".Now?Lidl closes at 10.Kaufland at 11.Everything lively,open. As it fucking should b

went from Slovakia to Austria yesterday, and the drop in capitalism you experience is so depressing you cross the border -> all stores are closed at 8 PM no way to buy groceries, if you actually work during the day and go shopping after work Austria is a beautiful place to live, but socialism here really got the upper hand and it's sad

@AmericatoUrals @Jacky9542491108 @LaocoonofTroy Well, an inbreed, shit eating, genetic sewage that you are would know in depth about indians

Romanian actress, Julieta Szönyi, in the 1960s and 70s.

@Jacky9542491108 @LaocoonofTroy Romanian actress. Julieta Ghiga. Born in Timișoara. In the romanian region of Transilvania. To romanian parents. Sugi pula, bozgor borât

@LaocoonofTroy Transylvanian Hungarian actress, Szönyi Julieta, born in Temesvár in 1949.

@jota_snchez 850 in Ro

Salario mínimos en Europa 2026 [Bruto Mensual] 🥉 Los más bajos 🇭🇺 Hungría — 838€ 🇷🇴 Rumanía — 795€ 🇱🇻 Letonia — 780€ 🇧🇬 Bulgaria — 620€ 🥈 Intermedio 🇪🇸 España — 1.381€ 🇸🇮 Eslovenia — 1.278€ 🇵🇱 Polonia — 1.139€ 🇵🇹 Portugal — 1.073€ 🇬🇷 Grecia — 1.027€ 🥇 Top ↓↓

@turcicvm @RazvanTrifu @777nineveh @Y40IFRQTTING there was no subjugation and 400 years is not nearly 5. Thankfully that historic sewage of feces of a nation died after getting butfucked for centuries by everyone and we have this irelevant shithole in the modern age that means nothing to anyone. History course corrected

@RazvanTrifu @777nineveh @Y40IFRQTTING Yeah 445 years of subjugation definitely does not mean anything right? Also, you telling the history in a way to make it seem less important is also another ego boost. Eflâk and Boğdan was tributary and heavily influenced vassals of the Devlet’i Aliyye for nearly 5 centuries.

@emmincipator @VERYKOOLLUKEY @CryptoMoe6 people on twitter seem to think EE is a different planet instead of,you know,still literally fucking europe. Where the exact same amenities and companies are active as the rest of the continent. You will have thousands of restaurants with every food in the world,so no. Wont clear

@VERYKOOLLUKEY @CryptoMoe6 a single neighborhood in cdmx would clear the entire eastern europe ito food

Eastern Europe > LATAM So many expat / nomad types are always shilling LATAM when Eastern Europe is better in basically every regard > Significantly safer > Much better infrastructure > Better food standards > “western sensibilities” so to speak > better architecture > more walkable > better technology > better health care > superior history and culture All that while the price of a GREAT EU capital city (think something like Tallinn or Riga) is the same price as a good capital city in LATAM (think something like Buenos Aires)

@RichardHanania has nothing to do with modernity. US culture of throwing your kid out at 18 is a dumbassery that doesnt exist in most of the planet and of which most people laugh and facepalm at. Various cultures just have different ways of doing things. Its got nothing to do with what you think

Imagine being 29 and living with your parents. Southern Europeans countries have adjusted much worse to modernity than Northern Europeans.

@preterniadotcom youtube.com/watch?v=Nhcxq8… a reissue, very cool. Have the original release. Very awesome and imposing figure. Almost 2 kilos loaded up. One of the heaviest mechs of this kind

Cang-Toys CangDao Hellboy (Lord Purgatory Version) is up for preorder at BBTS ($274.99) - bit.ly/48FIiv3 #ad