Did Daybreak CEO step down as a result of Lizard Squad?

MWEB GamZone writes: John Smedley, who co-founded Everquest, DC Universe Online, Planetside 2 and H1Z1, has stepped down as president and chief executive officer of Daybreak.

It this due to confrontations with the infamous hacker group, Lizard Squad?

[DesVader]

I'm going to wait and see what's happened, but its probably valid speculation...

[HanCilliers]

It's a fact that Smedley stepped down. Was it because of Lizard Squad? Probably. The article explains why.

[donthate]

Unfortunately, Lizard Squad is getting of way too easy on this. No wonder they keep doing it with little repercussion.

To make this go away, we need to make it unpopular and uncool to do this sort of thing. Everytime they do it, we should voice that it is an @sshole thing to do.

I also want to point out the hypocrisy here as well that as a male being bullied, we all symnphatized. Women endure this all the time....

Food for thought.

[HanCilliers]

It's a sad day for gaming when hackers can force an industry giant out of the gaming business.

[Skate-AK]

He is still a part of the company, just not CEO. They said he will stay at the company to fill an unspecified position.

[HanCilliers]

I know, but he was still forced from what he was doing. And it sucks.

[OB1Biker]

I feel for that guy being personally targeted and the internet 'gamers' throwing him stones for publicly standing up

[HanCilliers]

Where's the internet gamers that's throwing stones at him?

[OB1Biker]

Well Ive seen lots of comments against him taking on twitter to take it personally while its anybody s right to defend themselves publicly.
Some articles were posted here against him too

[rdgneoz3]

You always have the right to defend yourself. Though when you're dealing with a group of people who have done false tax returns / credit applications, made a bomb threat that grounded a plane, along with shutting down dozens of websites / bringing them down for a while, and hacking various companies, you should probably tread lightly.

Threatening to go after one member when the whole group has yet to be taken down isn't the smartest idea. Even if he wasn't a high ranking member or not really known too well within, they might not like people thinking they're a push over or they cower when people challenge them.

[pompombrum]

Lizard Squad definitely played an active role but as CEO, he should really know better than to come out with some of the things he did. He has every right to be mad at them but as a professional in the business world and gaming industry, he should know better than to go on a twitter bender.

[joab777]

It is exactly why it happened and it's a terrible precedent to set. This simply proves to them why they should keep attacking. Not to be political but it reminds me of the entire Israel/Palestine fight. Many think if Israel gives up enough land, everyone will be happy. But they see it as weakness, that if they push harder they can eventually drive Israel into the sea...and nothing short of that would be good enough. And it's the Palestinian and Israeli ppl who suffer.

It's the same here. They won't stop. They will keep pushing, and the gamers will be inconvenienced b/c of it.

[rainslacker]

I actually doubt LS had anything to do with him stepping down. I expected this sooner or later after Sony sold off SOE, because it's not typical for a CEO to stay in that position past the transition phase, or even there at all.

It was probably inevitable that it would happen.

What sucks though, is that LS is probably going to take credit and be all like, "haha, we win" as is their ego-maniacal fashion, and that will only empower them further in the future to try and get whatever it is they want...which to me, is just anything that feeds their narcissistic tendencies. I mean, this group really stands for nothing but trolling the community and the industry at large. They feed off the hate, and that hate is only becoming stronger.

I will say that I am disgusted at the people above that say he should have known better and shouldn't have said anything. i was proud someone in the industry stood up for himself, and did something we all wished someone would do to shut down LS. He didn't back down, and he had a lot of crap he had to deal with because of LS, much more so than any one here who was inconvenienced by their DDoS attacks. he didn't bring it upon himself, he was a victim, and he deserves our support because any one of us would feel the exact same way were we in his position. He should have had the entire support of the internet community with his comments without exception. but I guess those few hours of online play from your precious video games is too much to lose...even though you're going to lose it anyways because LS isn't going to stop now that Smedley stepped down. Way to stand up for the victim guys.

[Blastoise]

I hate having to call them the Lizard Squad, I feel like it feeds their massive egos

[HanCilliers]

I agree, what shall we call them?

[MCTJim]

A-Holes comes to mind

[MysticStrummer]

Loser Squad is what I prefer to call them.

[rainslacker]

How about calling them "Nothing". That's what they stand for, and ultimately, that's what they amount to.

[Chaosdreams]

Cowards in Hiding.

That is what they are.

[FarEastOrient]

Some Finnish judge out there is saying "I see no problems here, punishment suspended."

[Yui_Suzumiya]

LOL @ the cover picture though 😁

[The7Reaper]

Lizard Squad are attention whores if we keep giving them the attention they want they will never stop

[rainslacker]

And if we give them no attention, they'll go to greater lengths to get attention. That's what trolls do.

They can sit around laughing at the hate, but eventually it'll catch up to them. You can only piss off people for so long, and some people can cause a lot more trouble for LS than they have caused to other people.