John Smedley (born August 27, 1968) is an American business executive. He is the general manager at

Amazon Games Amazon Games (formerly Amazon Game Studios) is an American video game company and division of the online retailing company Amazon (company), Amazon that primarily focuses on publishing video games developed within the company's development divis ...

. He was the former president of

Daybreak Game Company 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 ...

, which changed its name from Sony Online Entertainment in 2015.

Early life

Smedley was born on August 27, 1968. He became heavily involved in

tabletop role-playing game A tabletop role-playing game (typically abbreviated as TRPG or TTRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a form of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech. Participa ...

s such as ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

'', which would later give him the ideas for ''

EverQuest ''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 Americ ...

''. He attended Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego, California, before graduating and attending

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

Career

In the early 1990s Smedley started a development company called Knight Technologies that produced contract games. Smedley was involved with the creation and development of the original ''

'', and was co-founder of

Verant Interactive 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 ...

, Inc., which became Sony Online Entertainment, Inc. (SOE) after it was purchased by

Sony Pictures Entertainment Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, ac ...

in 2000. 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. On August 24, 2014, a hacking group called

Lizard Squad 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. On September 3, 2014, Lizard Squad seemingly announced that it had disbanded ...

claimed that the plane on which John Smedley was flying (

American Airlines American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...

Flight 362 from

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, Texas to

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

, California) had explosives on board. This led to the flight being diverted to

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

. On July 22, 2015, after threatening a member of the hacker group

on Twitter, Smedley stepped down from his position as president and CEO of Daybreak Games Company. 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. 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."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smedley, John 1968 births Amazon (company) people American business executives American technology company founders American video game designers Corporate executives Living people People from San Diego San Diego State University alumni Sony Interactive Entertainment people Video game businesspeople