Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier is reporting that industry veteran John Smedley has left Amazon Game Studios in San Diego, where he was General Manager, after six years.
The report cites an email to staff from Smedley announcing his departure, saying that “After a lot of thought, I’ve decided it’s time for me to try my hand at something new”. Smedley has worked on several projects while at Amazon, none of which have been released.
In the news confirming his departure, an Amazon spokesperson in a statement to Bloomberg says that his current, yet-unannounced, project will continue in development under the rest of its team. Smedley himself will stay long enough to transition the team into the next phase before he moves on.
John Smedley is most well known for his work on classic MMORPGs like EverQuest and his time as co-founder of Verant Interactive, which later became Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). SOE, which was responsible for titles like Star Wars Galaxies, EverQuest II, PlanetSide, and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, was later sold and rebranded as Daybreak Game Company. John Smedley was president and CEO at Daybreak Game Company until 2015.
Amazon Game Studios has been around since 2013, with several titles announced, and a game, Crucible, released, and quickly shut down. Several announced and unannounced titles were canceled, including a planned MMORPG based on The Lord of the Rings. Finding some success with the release of New World, which it both developed and published, along with a publishing deal with Lost Ark, Amazon Game Studios continues setting sights on its future. One with a new GM.
What that future holds are additional publishing deals, including Blue Protocol, which is set to arrive sometime later this year, a title with UK studio Glowmade, and the recently-announced decision to partner with Crystal Dynamics to publish the next Tomb Raider title.
