Smedley steps down as Daybreak Games president

The company formerly known as Sony Online Entertainment is getting a new boss.

VentureBeat reports that John Smedley is leaving his position at the H1Z1 and Everquest developer, with current COO Russell Shanks to take on the role. It appears that he intends to stay with the company.

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 Daybreak spokesperson said.

Smedley was most recently in the headlines for his public attack on Lizard Squad hacker Julias Kivimakihas, who was recently spared a custodial sentence despite a long history of cyber vandalism.

Smedley took to twitter to call him a dirtbag”, a piece of garbage” and a sociopath” and state that he was coming for him”. It’s not clear whether today’s news is related to that outburst.

SOE in February split from former parent Sony to become new multi-format developer and publisher Daybreak Game Company. It has enjoyed immediate success with open-world zombie survival sim H1Z1.