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In an unexpected move, VentureBeat.com is reporting that John Smedley has resigned as the CEO and president of Daybreak Game Company, formerly Sony Online Entertainment. Current COO Russell Shanks will temporarily step into Smedley's place until a replacement is found.
“I can confirm that John Smedley will be taking some time off from the company for the near-term and transitioning to a different role to be determined,” a spokesperson for Daybreak told GamesBeat. “Upon finalization of his plans, further communication will be provided.”
While not confirmed by a company spokesman, the resignation comes on the heels of the recent Twitter war Smedley engaged in after Julius Kivimaki from Lizard Squad received what Smedley ascertained was a too-light sentence for his part in a bomb threat that caused a plane he was flying on to be grounded.
A day after the sentencing of a member of Lizard Squad and subsequent Twitter tirade by Daybreak Game Studio's John Smedley, it appears that all of DGS's titles and its website are under DDOS attack, with players unable to log into either.
The altercation between Smedley and remaining Lizard Squad members began after Julius Kivimaki, the now-convicted criminal of more than 50,000 counts of computer crimes, was sentenced yesterday. Smedley took to Twitter to express his strong feeling that the sentence meted out by the court in Finland was too light.
His parents need to be held accountable for his actions in addition to his going to jail. @what_security - So I'm coming for you Julius.
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) July 8, 2015A Twitter user claiming to be a member of Lizard Squad announced the attacks were imminent. Within minutes, the predicted DDOS began.
At this time, all Daybreak games are down and the team is actively working on a solution.
Shortly after this series of Twitter posts, and the subsequent DDOS attacks on all of Daybreak's games and its site, Smedley removed himself from the social network completely, leading, perhaps, to today's announcement.
Smedley has been a lightning rod of controversy over the years that he has been with the company, yet has been instrumental in the MMO and computer video games genres beginning with EverQuest, one of the first MMOs to hit the internet, and continuing through more recent MMOs including EverQuest Next, PlanetSide 2, and Landmark.
You can check out more at VentureBeat.com and a co-attendant thread on the MMORPG.com forum, as well as leave your thoughts in this article's thread.
Thanks PudgyBunnyBry!
Comments
He may be a polarizing figure who is hated by many, but you can't deny the awesome games his company built.
Personally, he doesn't bother me. He may be brash and rude sometimes, but to me that's better than others who won't speak a word in a public forum without having it run through half a dozen handlers and their legal department.
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. - Douglas Adams
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
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@OP Julius is still to get sentence for that plane thing, I guess Smed had previous sentences in mind.
What happened to him is likely direct consequence of his tweets and the provoked DDOS, I believe he had couple of very unpleasant conversations with his Russian bosses meantime. Had I not lost hope and interest for EQN long time ago, I would be worried. Anyway, I guess nothing important will change.
Ten years too late.
Amazing to me that destroying several games didn't result in his removal, but 140 characters or less in today's absurdly PC world could.
I wouldn't put it that way.
What likely happened is that his bosses were either unaware or unconcerned about his habit of engaging fans and detractors alike on twitter and other social media. I think the latest highly public tweets about the Lizard Squad and subsequent DDOS attacks made them both aware and concerned.
Whatever you think about his tweets, scummy hackers and free speech, it has been unusual public behavior (some would say eccentric) for the CEO of a large company.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
That's actually my thought. If it really is the core reason thugs won. It was probably only a matter of time before he was gone anyway after the buyout. Timing though really makes it look bad.
does that mean eqn is even deader or after smed, after all the guys that were fired and after story bricks gone, just moves into a completly different direction?
will eqn now just become skyforge 2?
Can't blame him. Just look at some of these comments on here. Nothing but hate and vitriol. If you don't like the games, fine, but why attack the people that make them? I wonder if these same people attack employees who make their clothing, appliances, or cars. I seriously doubt it, but when it comes to video games, they get emotional and hateful. It's quite strange.
edit: i should clarify, not really these comments here, but everywhere else too.
When you lose the passion ,its time to pass the torch to someone who can keep it burning bright.
So, did ESO have a successful launch? Yes, yes it did.By Ryan Getchell on April 02, 2014.
**On the radar: http://www.cyberpunk.net/ **
My guess it is a combo of
health reasons (it is a high stress job to begin with. Add a bunch of basement dwelling cyber-terrorist wannabes saying they are going to blow up your plane to it and i am pretty sure that is some serious stress)
PR (as speculated earlier about new owners)
Also he might feel that it is time to focus on his family and friends since i am pretty sure they have both suffered in the long run and not to mention lately from LS and similar.
This have been a good conversation
Hopefully he'll enjoy some vacation time before coming back to do the same thing he did before but not publically.
Well, if this goes on much longer Daybreak Game Company won't have ANY of the old SOE employees left. The company has been completely "transformed".
I'm not holding much hope for their future in the MMO industry. My guess is that they'll continue to milk the existing EQ games, while using the profits to focus on "other areas" of game development, which probably means I'll never be playing a Daybreak game ever.
im sure an investment company has a lot of "passion" for the games industry - at least for free to play mobile games...
Del Cabon
A US Army ('Just Cause') Vet and MMORPG Native formerly of Trinsic, Norath and Dereth. Currently playing LOTRO.