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John Smedley Stepping Down As President From Daybreak Games
John Smedley is stepping down as the president of Daybreak Games – formerly known as Sony Online Entertainment – for an undetermined role with the MMO company.
A statement from a spokesperson for Daybreak to GamesBeat reads: "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. Upon finalization of his plans, further communication will be provided."
Russell Shanks, the COO, will take over Smedley's position.
Recently Smedley took to Twitter to talk about the conviction of Finnish hacker and member of Lizard Squad Julius Kivimaki, during which time Smedley was particularly combative.
Earlier this year, Sony sold off SOE, which became Daybreak. The company immediately promised multi-platform versions of its MMO titles. Daybreak also recently released PlanetSide 2 on PS4, and it's also working on H1Z1, Landmark, and EverQuest Next.
[Source: GamesBeat]
Our Take
It's unknown, of course, what effect – if any – the Lizard Squad feud had on Daybreak/Smedley's decision, but Smedley has too much experience, dating back to the original EverQuest, in the genre to let it go to waste because of these hackers.
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