Background
Smedley was born August 27, 1968.
President of Daybreak Game Company
Smedley was born August 27, 1968.
He attended Mountain. Carmel High School in San Diego, California, before graduating and attending San Diego State University.
He became heavily involved in table-top RPGS such as Dungeons & Dragons, which would later give him the ideas for EverQuest. In the early 1990s Smedley started a development company called Knight Technologies that produced contract games. 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 claimed that the plane on which John Smedley was flying (American Airlines Flight 362 from Dallas, Texas to San Diego, California) had explosives on board.
This led to the flight being diverted to Phoenix, Arizona.
On July 22, 2015, after threatening a member of the hacker group Lizard Squad on Twitter, Smedley stepped down from his position as president and Chief Executive Officer of Daybreak Games Company.