If one looks at the antecedent conditions (Club Jenna has gutted its contract girl roster, Vivid has laid a few off as mentioned in the article, plus Jana Cova and at least one other on the outs at Digital Playground), you can see that there is going to be a levelling out of the marketplace at some point in the very near future.

Part of me believes that will actually be a good thing...it's going to sort out the wheat from the chaff in short order. It's going to force people at every level of the business to start being a bit more discerning and selective about who gets hired and who doesn't, what projects get greenlighted and what gets shitcanned, and dare I say it, but some companies might have to start listening to what the consumer wants rather than just putting out what they feel like.

Companies need to start being proactive, and they need to do it fast. I'm still gobsmacked that after all these years, there is still no actual sales chart which lists amounts of units shifted or revenue accrued. Vivid have made a point to keep on doing a number of things which piss the customers off (like unskippable ads at the start of DVDs, for example), and it could be that the chickens are about to come home to roost on this one.

If I might offer a counterpoint? For me, right now, the people making the best stuff out there are the Italians, specifically Pink'O. They have a contract stable (including Brigitta Bulgari and Roberta Missoni, amongst others) that pisses over those that most US companies have got, and they are making lush, big-budget HD features too. They have thrown down the gauntlet, and I'd like to see some American companies pick it up and rise to the challenge.

The Specialist

The Order

Here's hoping...