Former Daybreak president John Smedley has created a new company after stepping down from his executive role at the H1Z1 developer, according to Smedley’s Facebook profile.
There are currently no details or even an official name for the new company, but Smedley teased the announcement, saying, “Info coming soon.”
Smedley’s Facebook profile does still list him as president of Daybreak in addition to his new position at his new company, but it’s possible he simply hasn’t updated that portion of his profile to reflect him stepping down from that position last month.
Prior to him stepping down as president of Daybreak, Smedley posted a series of tweets in regards to Julius “zeekill” Kivimaki, 17, being convicted of 50,700 charges of cybercrime, saying Kivimaki was responsible for the bomb threat that grounded his plane in 2014. Smedley called Kivimaki a “sociopath” and “dirtbag” that would “get what’s coming to him.” Smedley also said that Kivimaki and Kivimaki’s parents should be held accountable for his actions, “in addition to his going to jail.”
In response to critics of his tweets directed at Kivimaki, Smedley explained his insistence on making sure perpetrators of cybercrime like Kivimaki are legally pursued to the fullest extent of the law.
“He was the guy that brought down my flight with a bomb threat. I've heard the entire recording where he convinced an airline customer service agent there was a bomb on the plane," Smedley wrote on Reddit. "He also in conjunction with others has sent me pictures of my father's grave with nasty stuff on it. I've had my entire credit history put out on the internet including my SSN and my [family's] info. We've had multiple social networks and other things hacked and had my family members called.
“I've also been swatted (multiple times) and had over 50 false credit applications submitted in my name and had to deal with the ramifications of what happens to your credit when this kind of thing happens. It's not good. And to top it all off they decided to submit false tax returns.”
He continued, “So you guys can debate this.. [sic] and that's all well and good, but meanwhile this shit is real to my life and my family's life and I'm sure as hell not lying down for it for a second. I've been working with law enforcement to put him and others into jail where they belong. Some of them are minors which makes it tough. Most of them are outside the US, which makes it tougher. But I'm patient and I'm going to be relentless about this.
Some of Daybreak’s online-centric games, such as zombie apocalypse MMO H1Z1 and first-person shooter MMO PlanetSide 2, received DDOS attacks following Smedley’s aforementioned tweets addressing Kivimaki’s sentencing. Lizard Squad took credit for these attacks, saying, “Hope you like our present John Smedley (the CEO) [sic].” Lizard Squad then followed up that tweet with another that said, “The only way we’ll forever hold our peace with John Smedley is if he travels to Krasnodar and bows down to zeekill [Kivimaki].” (Those tweets from Lizard Squad have since been deleted).
Before stepping down from his position at Daybreak, Smedley deleted his Twitter and Reddit accounts “of my own choice,” he wrote on Reddit.
“I really love making games. It makes me happy,” he wrote at the time. “I saw Twitter as a great way to talk 1-1 with players which I love doing. I'm simply not going to let this make me lose focus….but I am going to walk away from Twitter and not miss it for a second. Life's too short to let things distract me from what I really like doing. I will miss the interaction with our players though. A great deal.
Smedley has since reinstated his Twitter account and began tweeting again on Aug. 8, following a nearly four-week break from the social media website. His Reddit account remains deleted.
[Source: John Smedley on Facebook via Trust in Play]
