John Smedley | |
|---|---|
 Smedley giving a presentation at the 2012 Game Developers Conference | |
| Born | August 27, 1968 |
| Occupation | Business executive |
John Smedley (born August 27, 1968) is an American business executive. He is the general manager at Amazon Games. He was the former president of Daybreak Game Company, which changed its name from Sony Online Entertainment in 2015.
Smedley was born on August 27, 1968. He became heavily involved in tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons , which would later give him the ideas for EverQuest . He attended Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego, California, before graduating and attending San Diego State University.
In the early 1990s Smedley started a development company called Knight Technologies that produced contract games. [1]
Smedley was involved with the creation and development of the original EverQuest , [2] and was co-founder of Verant Interactive, Inc., which became Sony Online Entertainment, Inc. (SOE) after it was purchased by Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2000. [3]
In 2007, he announced a change in direction for Sony Online Entertainment, including a broadening of business models beyond the subscription model and pursuing female consumers to balance their audience, which was 85% male at the time. [4]
On August 24, 2014, a hacking group called Lizard Squad claimed that the plane on which John Smedley was flying (American Airlines Flight 362 from Dallas, Texas to San Diego, California) had explosives on board. This led to the flight being diverted to Phoenix, Arizona. [5] [6]
On July 22, 2015, after threatening a member of the hacker group Lizard Squad on Twitter, [7] Smedley stepped down from his position as president and CEO of Daybreak Games Company. [8] Four months after stepping down, Smedley announced the startup of his own game development company, Pixelmage Games, and a game called Hero's Song. In January 2017, Pixelmage announced the closing of the studio and subsequently the development of Hero's Song. He currently is the general manager of Amazon Game Studios San Diego. [9]
On January 11, 2023, he announced his departure from Amazon Game Studios. In an email to staff, Smedley wrote that "after a lot of thought, I’ve decided it’s time for me to try my hand at something new." A spokesperson for Amazon added that Smedley would remain on the team until "the team is fully transitioned before he moves on." [10]
EverQuest is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) originally developed by Verant Interactive and 989 Studios for Windows PCs. It was released by Sony Online Entertainment in March 1999 in North America, and by Ubisoft in Europe in April 2000. A dedicated version for Mac OS X was released in June 2003, which operated for ten years before being shut down in November 2013. In June 2000, Verant Interactive was absorbed into Sony Online Entertainment, who took over full development and publishing duties of the title. Later, in February 2015, SOE's parent corporation, Sony Computer Entertainment, sold the studio to investment company Columbus Nova and it was rebranded as Daybreak Game Company, which continues to develop and publish EverQuest.
WB Games Boston is an American video game developer. The studio is best known for its massive multiplayer online role-playing games, Asheron's Call, Dungeons & Dragons Online, and The Lord of the Rings Online.
Daybreak Game Company LLC is an American video game developer based in San Diego. The company was founded in December 1997 as Sony Online Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment, but was spun off to an independent investor in February 2015 and renamed Daybreak Game Company. On December 1, 2020, Daybreak Game Company entered into an agreement to be acquired by Enad Global 7.
Brad McQuaid was an American video game designer who was the key designer of EverQuest, a highly successful massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 1999. He later co-founded Sigil Games Online where he served as CEO and Executive Producer of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes until Sony Online Entertainment's acquisition of Sigil Games Online in May 2007. On July 6, 2012, SOE announced the re-hiring of McQuaid to continue his work on Vanguard. On January 13, 2014, McQuaid announced his role of Chief Creative Officer at Visionary Realms, Inc. for the PC MMORPG, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen.
Sigil Games Online, Inc. was a computer game developer based in Carlsbad, California founded in January 2002 by Brad McQuaid and Jeff Butler, key development team members who created EverQuest, the most popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game before World of Warcraft. McQuaid and Butler left Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), the publisher of EverQuest, and formed Sigil Games Online to develop "the next big thing". McQuaid told the video game website IGN, "I find myself much happier at the results of assembling an all-star team of MMOG developers and focusing on making one ground-breaking, unprecedented project, as opposed to being spread thin like I was as VP/CCO at Verant/SOE.". Sigil released their only game "Vanguard: Saga of Heroes" on January 30, 2007 after several well publicized delays and a last minute switch from publishing with Microsoft to publishing again with SOE. On May 15, 2007, SOE announced that they had completed a transaction to purchase key assets of Sigil Games Online. As a result, SOE now owns Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, described as Sigil's "tent pole property".
Raphael "Raph" Koster is an American entrepreneur, game designer, and author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design. Koster is widely recognized for his work as the lead designer of Ultima Online and the creative director behind Star Wars Galaxies. From 2006 until 2013 he worked as the founder and president of Metaplace producing a Facebook game platform.
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes was a high fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Sigil Games Online and published by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). The game was released on January 30, 2007 and initially sold around 242,000 copies, while the number of active subscriptions was estimated to be around 130,000, to drop in the next months to about 40,000. On May 15, 2007, it was announced in a press release that Sony Online Entertainment had acquired key assets from Sigil Games Online, including all rights to Vanguard.
Jade Raymond is a Canadian video game developer, best known for helping create the Assassin's Creed and Watch Dogs franchises, and for building Ubisoft Toronto and EA Motive Studios. In March 2021, Raymond announced the founding of a new independent development team called Haven Studios, which was later acquired by Sony Interactive Entertainment in July 2022, making them a first-party developer for PlayStation Studios.
Tanarus was a free 3D multiplayer online tank first-person shooter that was commercially released on December 12, 1997. It was developed under the direction of John Smedley at Verant Interactive and published by Sony Interactive Studios America. Originally titled Armorgeddon, Verant was forced to change the name when another game with that name was discovered. It was released in late 1997. The game was included in Sony Online Entertainment's Station Exchange program in 2007, and shut down on June 10, 2010.
The Mystere incident was an EverQuest controversy revolving around a player named "Mystere", banned from the game by Verant over a controversial role-playing story.
Legends of Norrath was an online digital collectible card game by Sony Online Entertainment. Legends of Norrath is based on the massively multiplayer online role-playing games EverQuest and EverQuest II. Legends Of Norrath was playable from within either of the two games, or via a stand-alone client.
Michael Bacon is an American 3D artist/animator/designer/musician who has been working in the video game industry since 1996. He has worked on an array of large scale production game titles as Art Director/Lead Artist or Senior Artist with such companies as THQ, Sony Online Entertainment, Boss Game Studios, n-Space, Jaleco Inc, Volition, Hasbro Toy Company, and Aramat Productions.
EverQuest Next was a planned massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), meant to be the successor to EverQuest, EverQuest Online Adventures and EverQuest II. The game was in development by the Daybreak Game Company, but the project was terminated in 2016.
Laralyn McWilliams is an American game designer and video game producer.
PlanetSide 2 is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online first-person shooter developed by Rogue Planet Games and published by Daybreak Game Company. The game supports battles with thousands of players and incorporates modern first-person shooter mechanics. Six different infantry classes and over 18 ground and air vehicles are available to players and interact on the battlefield to simulate combined arms warfare. As a re-imagining of PlanetSide, PlanetSide 2 chronicles the efforts of three factions fighting for territorial control of the planet Auraxis.
Landmark was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed and published by Daybreak Game Company for Microsoft Windows. The game's original name was EverQuest Next Landmark, but was switched to Landmark in March 2014. The original purpose for EverQuest Next Landmark was mainly as a player content creation tool for EverQuest Next. Landmark was released in June 2016, and was playable until the servers were shut down in February 2017.
Lizard Squad was a black hat hacking group, mainly known for their claims of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks primarily to disrupt gaming-related services.
Amazon Games is an American video game company and division of the online retailing company Amazon that primarily focuses on publishing video games developed within the company's development divisions.
Relentless Studios is an American video game developer that is based in Seattle, Washington. The company is led by Louis Castle, most known for being the co-founder of development Westwood Studios. The studio is one of four game main development divisions under Amazon Games. The other three are based in San Diego, California, Orange County, California, and Montreal, Quebec. The studio is most known for releasing the PC title Crucible in May 2020. The game would remain in active service until it was closed in November of the same year.
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