Going From Sony To Daybreak Is A "Fresh Start," Says Smedley
Daybreak Game Company's chief executives, President John Smedley and Senior VP of Global Sales and Marketing Laura Naviaux chatted with GamesIndustry earlier this week as part of the company's focus on its rebranding, which included a new logo and in-game celebrations.
"It's kind of nice, because the fact that we're getting the chance to make Xbox games and mobile games meant that everybody felt it was a fresh start," Smedley said. VR games is another field that Smedley is excited about and hopes his company will take a leading role in, which humorously lamenting that it's tougher to deal with mundane tasks, like securing his new company's credit cards.
"It was a very exciting project to work on because we could finally unleash the company we were always meant to be," added Naviaux.
Smedley didn't directly address the layoffs that occurred shortly after the Columbus Nova acquisition, instead referring to employees who left afterwards, like former PlanetSide 2 Lead Creative Director Matt Higby, as "still our Daybreak family whether they're employees here or not."
Both Smedley and Naviaux expressed gratitude for their time with Sony, while also giving positive reviews of their new situation with Columbus Nova. Going forward, Smedley reasserted his company's dedication to free-to-play while declaring that "the days of the WoW-style MMO are over" -- both in terms of its payment model and its type of content.
We'll be participating in a roundtable discussion with John Smedley later this week and asking some in-depth questions of our own, so be on the lookout for that!
Related Articles
About the Author

Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.
Read Next
Magicka: Wizard Wars Launches With New Game Mode
Paradox Interactive has officially launched Magicka: Wizard Wars, the free to play wizard PvP game, today and is introducing a new game mode to go along with the official launch. Previous players are already familiar with b...
By Michael Byrne - 7 years agoYou May Enjoy
đź’Ł Feature | Reactions: The Day Before Gameplay Trailer Actually Releases, And It's Underwhelming To Say The Least
This game was actually slated to release this month until just a week ago.
By Michael Byrne - 2 days agoFortnite Creative’s Unreal Editor Now Delayed Until March
The long-awaited game mode is pushed back once more.
By Aspen Pash - 1 week agoMicrosoft Claims Sony Created A False Narrative To Try And Dissuade EU Regulators Concerning The Acquisition of Activision Blizzard
“It would defy business logic for us to exclude PlayStation.”
By Aspen Pash - 5 days agoApex Legends Rings In The Chinese New Year With The Celestial Sunrise Collection
Players can start collecting the limited-time Legendary skins today!
By Aspen Pash - 1 week agoGo Figure, Someone’s Leaked The Final Phase Of FFXIV's The Omega Protocol Ultimate
The World’s First Race just got a lot faster.
By QuintLyn Bowers - 1 week agoRedfall Answers Persistent Online and Xbox Gold Questions In New FAQ
Is always online and Xbox Gold required?
By Troy Blackburn - 2 days ago
Sadly the game it self had issues from the start and had some very horrid benchmarking going people where burning the gpu's and so on especially AMD and Radeon cards mine included beware that if you dont use a Nvidia card i suggest you wait until launch.