Need to Know
16 : 02 : 23

France – Homa, previously known as Homa Games, sent branding agency Ragged Edge on a mission to democratise the gaming development industry while being aesthetically bold and appealing to independent game developers.

Founded in France by Daniel Nathan and Olivier Le Bas in 2018, Homa has published over 80 games across 34 countries, reaching over 1bn downloads overall. Its next goal is to attract the world’s best engineers and ‘transform millions of gamers from fans of Homa’s games to fans of Homa itself’.

The rebranding frames the company as a precision-tooled gaming lab and its staff as elite technicians in leather jumpsuits working on glass desks and surrounded by tech in a pink-lit room. ‘For the identity, we imagined Homa as a cheat code that allows developers to game the system. A data-fuelled wonderland, where a precision-built logo and graphic system frame a series of surreal landscapes that allow the Homa characters to roam,’ says Max Ottignon, co-founder of Ragged Edge.

Powering a new generation of gaming developers is in tune with the technological counter culture that is decentralising capitalism – as we identified in Alternet Economies.

US – Kitchen appliances will soon include a food waste dehydrator bin, according to start-up Mill. Born at the start of the pandemic when co-founders Matt Rogers and Harry Tannenbaum found themselves 'stuck at home staring at and smelling our own trash', Mill aims to turn uneaten food into a soil-like chicken feed ingredient for local farmers.

The bin will dry, shrink and eliminate all smells from the daily food waste overnight. Unlike compost, which would require open space, Mill is just a bin requiring no attention. The project aims to prevent banana peels or leftover pasta from ending up in a landfill and releasing methane (one of the most potent greenhouse gases). According to IPCC, global food loss and waste account for 8–10% of global emissions – more than India’s and Russia’s yearly greenhouse gas emissions.

Only available in the US for now, Mill offers a monthly membership fee of £27 ($33, €31) that includes the bin, a seamless mail-back service delivering the dehydrated waste to local farms and personalised impact tracking.

In Food Waste Innovation, we looked at new initiatives taking a proactive approach to food waste management. Mill is already re-imagining tomorrow’s homes with a new seamless kitchen appliance dedicated to sustainability.

China – As entry-level luxury consumers see their purchasing power shrink in light of the global economic slowdown, new research from Bain & Co shows the growing importance of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) in luxury sales.

According to the new Bain & Co report, luxury has become more polarised in 2022. Chinese Very Important Clients (VICs) are growing in number and have become major contributors to luxury sales over the past year. Less likely to be hit by recession, VICs represent the fastest-growing segment of consumers in China. Mainly because of nationwide lockdowns, Chinese VICs contributed to 50% of online luxury sales.

The data also reveals that in 2022 the Chinese luxury market declined by 10% year on year, shrinking for the first time in five years and breaking China’s ‘bull run’ due to Covid-19 regulations and business disruptions. Despite the slowdown, Bain & Co forecasts a gradual recovery for China’s retail and the prevalence of Guilded Luxury among HNWIs.