Daybreak Game Company CEO John Smedley has stepped down following online harassment. He will be taking a break from the company before returning to a different role at the studio.
Until February this year, Daybreak Game Company was Sony Online Entertainment; it's the studio behind Planetside 2, H1Z1, EverQuest, and Landmark.
For the past year the studio has been the target of the hacking group Lizard Squad, Smedley, as a profile member of the studio, was the focus of these attacks. Their games were hit by many Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, Smedley had SWAT teams sent to his house multiple times, he had a flight grounded by a bomb threat, and Lizard Squad ruined his credit score by making many false credit claims in in his name.
Earlier this month, when 17-year-old Julius “zeekill” Kivimaki, a member of Lizard Squad, was found guilty of more than 50,000 hacking charges but given no prison time; Smedley tweeted to tell Kivimaki that he was "coming for" him.
In response, Lizard Squad launched another DDoS attack on Daybreak's games.
It sounds like this may have been the last straw for Smedley or the company, in a statement sent to VentureBeat, a Daybreak spokesperson said “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 finalisation of his plans, further communication will be provided.”
In the interim, Smedley will be replaced by the company's current chief operating officer, Russell Shanks.
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