Sony is still out,jobs at Cisco are going, and Square Enix had a bad, bad day. It's not a good time for a lot of people . . .
Sony Disaster-Palooza:
Reports are drifting in of the outage taking a toll on PS3 sales and trade-ins. No hard statistics yet, so I'd be cautious about jumping too far to conclusions. Still I'd say there's enough to A) investigate further, and B) assume there's some negative impact.
Cisco Layoff-Palooza:
Cisco is looking at some hefty layoffs. I remember when they were a guaranteed thing (then again they also have been the guaranteed layoff thing, they have cycles). This may A) kill some confidence in IT, B) will slightly strain the employment pool of Silicon valley further, and C) lead to competitors glad to come in and take a swipe.
Business:
Seth Godin hits it out of the park again by noting when you believe in brand exceptionalism you're stuck. A short but good read.
Ecosystems:
MUST READ: A look at the hidden empire of Amazon.com. This explores the power and reach of Amazon, which is likely more extensive than you realize.
Fails:
(I'm thinking maybe THIS is the new category we need)
Eidos was hacked and some personal information may have been compromised. Nothing big apparently, but in an age of so many failures, I bring it up just in case.
Comics:
NBC didn't pick up the much-questioned 'Wonder Woman' TV series. Which sounds like a good idea – and now maybe something dignified can be done with the property (hey, perhaps you want to make a pitch). I do agree with the article – I feel bad for Adrianne Palicki, who seems to have been the best choice in the show.
Social Media:
Facebook apparently hired a PR firm to smear Google – This one's been rocketing around the internet. Now it's not going to be a fatal blow for Facebook, but it looks bad and clearly is going to re-energize rivalries and mistrust.
Video:
Hulu extends its contracts. Still, as the article notes, its future is in question. So Hulu is going forward, but it seems people aren't sure why.
Video Games:
Ouch – Square Enix warns its had some massive losses. Obviously the quake didn't help, but it still means title cut, layoffs, strategy changes, and more. Big name, big company, so see what this does to the game industry.
Now some good news in gaming: Gamevil reports a rise in smartphone profits (and produce some good titles from what I hear). Nippon Ichi returns to profitability and reminds me of my love for Disgaea (sadly I didn't like any one past, Sega Sammy actually doubled profits.
QUESTION OF THE DAY: What will Square Enix do in their situation?
– Steven Savage