Disney's Soft Touch and a Transparent Netflix
This is a lean edition of the newsletter with only two main stories but 9 quick links!!
Hi there! We’re on the 78th day of the ‘Corona Diaries’ with confirmed presence in a record 63 countries and almost 90,000 patients. Hang in there, the tech must go on…
Several top people in top companies have stepped down in the past week just before their companies reported latest quarter earnings —the head of Uber Eats, the Co-CEO of Salesforce— but none as important as Bob Iger. The man responsible for the acquisition of Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm will be replaced by ‘Bob from parks’. Iger ‘threatened’ us all with his departure multiple times in the past decade but he extended his stay in a pretty similar fashion the copyright law got extended in the US just before the rights for Mickey Mouse were about to enter the public domain. Now' he’s finally done it…
Except Iger is actually staying on as Executive Chairman into 2021 and will ‘continue to direct the Company’s Creative Endeavors’, as per the official statement, having amongst his direct reports the new CEO himself 🤔. I’m not exactly sure what Disney think their main activity is, but the rest of us are pretty convinced by now they’re a creative company at their core—as also demonstrated when they licensed their IP to third parties for game development. The way the move was done is sensible and expertly downplayed by the company, a very appropriate modus operandi considering the gargantuan size of the business and the potential for every tiny change to affect the stock price in a negative way. We can view the next 24 months of the slow exit as an NBA player farewell tour when one of the best CEOs in entertainment can enjoy the fun, creative part of the work casually and with little pressure while he says goodbye to everyone.
After years of using hidden algorithms for ranking and suggesting shows to consumers, Netflix is reportedly working on a ‘Top 10’ feature that would allow subscribers to see what are the most-watched movies and TV shows at any given time. This is a pretty big deal considering the company doesn’t reveal viewer numbers or the magnitude of a product’s popularity unless the number makes for some good PR and we can thank new competing services for the new, more transparent, attitude.
In the next six months will have a pretty accurate picture of how the pie is sliced in terms of users and the migration from one service to another will be frantic at first but will probably stabilize by September. Netflix’s international service and the slow rollout of the competition are bound to give it an edge in the short term, but Disney has the money to expand quickly and it has the back-catalog to attract a lot of eyes in the long term.
After acquiring Beat Games three months ago, Facebook announced it purchased Sanzaru Games, makers of hit VR game Asgard’s Wrath. They seem to apply a good strategy of acquiring VR development studios early and for small amounts in order to ensure they own many quality exclusive titles in the future 👍👍
1500+ games have signed up for the GefroceNOW platform, over 1 million gamers signed up for accounts in the first weeks and the biggest game of the year will be available to play there on launch day 📺🕹️🕹️
Microsoft confirmed what we already know on Series X hardware specs: 12TFLOP, raytracing and quick loading times. Let’s see if they’ll also have interesting games running on this hardware come launch day 🎮🎮
As predicted in last week’s edition, GDC2020 is officially ‘postponed’ (for now) and the release calendar we have in gaming will likely force it into cancelation. Also, it’s not looking too good for the Olympics either❌🏅❌
An electric city car for €19.99/mo or €0.26/min that doesn’t require a driving license sounds like a business model with the potential to disrupt multiple existing spheres, even today, in the absence of full self-driving capabilities 🔋🚗🚗
Since there’s a lot of overlap in the type of people who were asking ‘How is Google ever going to make money’ and those asking the same about Instagram and TikTok, here’s the answer: (luxury) brands 👜🛍️💰💰
If you ever wanted to give the influencer thing a try, here’s your chance with Botnet🤖
If you wanna know who the killer is in those rare movies without a butler, look for the phones everyone’s holding #SpoilerAlert 📱📱
A new Samurai Jack videogame was announced and I’m here for it:
Liked what you read? Want more? ↓Sign Up Now↓ and check out Medium & Twitter.