'Commandos,' the video game that made Pérez Dolset a multimillionaire before becoming a plumber for the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party).

The summer of 1998, when video game players weren't called "gamers," revolutionized the global industry thanks to a small developer from a country like Spain, whose relevance in the sector was minimal. Pyro Studios, founded two years earlier, released Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines , and it automatically became a colossal sales success. So much so that even today, almost three decades later, it is the best-selling Spanish video game in history. That company was founded by two brothers, one of whom is now at the forefront of political news: Javier Pérez Dolset , one of the "plumbers" of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ).

'Commandos' changed everything. The Pérez Dolsets, Javier and Ignacio , developed a game that demonstrated a degree of audacity never before seen in the virtually nonexistent Spanish industry. Its plot captivated millions of people not only in Spain but around the world: it was the number 1 seller in 25 countries and reached second place worldwide, surpassed only by the equally legendary FIFA '98 by Electronic Arts.

The plot of the video game was as follows, as stated on the box. "At the end of 1940, all of Western Europe is dominated by the German army, who are temporarily stopped by the English Channel, while they gather their troops and prepare for an imminent invasion of England. Despite everything, one man in the British command is not willing to allow his country's military maneuvers to be solely defensive: Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Clarke . His strategy is based on creating a special unit of commandos specialized in different weapons and equipment, who must carry out dangerous offensive and infiltration missions and thus change the course of the war."

Players could control a Green Beret, a Sapper, a Driver, a Marine, a Sniper, and a Spy, each with their own unique abilities, to complete missions and achieve the objectives set against the Nazis in each of their missions.

'Commandos' changed the way we understood war-themed video games. Its isometric perspective , its attention to detail —some missions required a very mature understanding—and graphics that, at the time, were revolutionary, made Pyro Studios the subject of worldwide study. The Pérez Dolset brothers , especially Ignacio —who was co-director and lead designer of the 'Commandos' missions alongside Gonzalo Suárez Girard 'Gonzo' —and a difficulty that would drive many to despair today, began appearing in the specialized press as examples of their good work.

In their review for the specialist magazine 'PC Top Games' in August 1998, they admitted to being "a bit empty-footed after finishing Commandos." "We can't help but take our hats off to the work of the Pyro guys. We hope their efforts follow at least a similar path," they hoped.

Those paths quickly became blocked... and that's where Javier Pérez Dolset comes in.

While Ignacio and 'Gonzo' gave interviews and became the visible faces of Pyro Studios, the one who moved the business tank they had created almost unintentionally was Javier Pérez Dolset.

The success of the 'Commandos' product opened newscasts. This economist from Jaén and "tech geek," as he called himself in an interview with 'El Periódico,' was interviewed as a new guru in the dawn of the internet. Not in vain was he one of the men behind Terra . He was one of the first to understand that the future of the video game industry lay in interconnectivity, and in the cybercafés that were so popular at the time, what today would be understood as a community around 'Commandos' was created.

The logic was obvious: they had to continue with the saga. 'Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty' and 'Commandos 2: Men of Honor' came out in 1999 and 2001, the latter not only in PC versions but also for Playstation 2 and X-Box. Pyro Studios, by now a giant, released 'Praetorians' —a carbon copy of 'Commandos' but set in the time of Julius Caesar— and 'Imperial Glory' , games with a similar aesthetic to 'Commandos'... but they didn't work the same way.

Pérez Dolset realized that the industry's winds were shifting from personal computers and video game consoles to something much more intimate and accessible: mobile phones . Pyro Studios never enjoyed success comparable to that of the first 'Commandos,' to the point that the latest in the series, 'Commandos Strike Force,' released in 2006, led to a complete break with Eidos Interactive, its publishing partners.

By then, the Dolsets had already founded the company that would later become the parent company for all their projects, Zed Worldwide . It was under this label that the big change for Pyro Studios occurred in 2012, which disappeared under this name. The Pérez Dolsets decided to merge with the company Play Wireless , which resulted in Pyro Mobile , a company dedicated to the development of applications for mobile phones, tablets and social networks. Among its partners were some with an obscure curriculum. One of them was the Ukrainian Mikhail Fridman , co-founder of Alfa Bank, the largest private bank in Russia, and considered one of Vladimir Putin 's greatest collaborators.

Dolset would accuse him and others of leading him to ruin when, forced by debts, he declared the company bankrupt in 2016, a year before having to answer for his appearance in the 'Panama Papers' .

The Dolset years at the helm of 'Commandos' are long gone, but the video game is enjoying a sweet spot again. Owned by Kalypso Media , development began in 2023 on a sort of prequel, 'Commandos: Origins' , an updated take on the historic video game that, as its name suggests, focuses on the saga's original spirit.

As chance would have it, the release of this latest installment in the series coincides with Javier Pérez Dolset 's emergence into the political spotlight. From being the "guru" who changed the video game industry in Spain to becoming part of the hydrocarbons scandal , and from there to little more than Leire Díez's bodyguard in one of the most bizarre appearances in living memory. Not even the best screenwriter would have put a video game character in this position.