John Smedley, the co-creator of EverQuest, is at the helm of a new San Diego based studio for Amazon Game Studios, the company has recently announced. Smedley was the previous president of Sony Online Entertainment and Daybreak Game Company. He will lead an all new team in San Diego although no title was announced yet.
Amazon said that Smedley’s ambitious new project will utilize the power of Twitch and AWS Cloud to connect gamers around the world to a thrilling new word of gaming. Amazon states that Smedley’s influence can be felt in thousands of games as he was one of the pioneers who helped shape modern MMO. Smedley had contributed greatly in the fusing of vibrant player communities and massive game worlds, a vision that is shared by Amazon Game Studios.
In 2015, Smedley had stepped down from his position of CEO and president of Daybreak Game Company. Later in 2015, he founded Pixelmage Games which has developed Hero’s Song, an action role playing game. In 2016, both Hero’s Song and Pixelmage shut down. Amazon Game Studios have locations in Orange County, California and Seattle, Washington. The company is working on a few new games for PC which includes Breakaway, New World and Crucible, as reported by Polygon.
Amazon stated that players should not expect to hear anything soon from the upcoming project. It is still in the early stages of development so players should be patient and not expect to hear about it soon. Smedley states that he is excited to see Amazon’s effort to do big things in gaming. Smedley worked for Sony Online/Daybreak for almost two decades before his departure. He had worked on numerous projects and is truly a veteran in the industry of gaming. Previous works include EverQuest, Planetside and H1Z1, as published by GameSpot.
