John Smedley hired by Amazon to produce MMOs

lol, couldn't you see it happening though? It is all too perfect.

Elidroth said:

I disagree. Smed has had some mis-steps, but overall he's made a hell of a lot more money for his bosses than he's lost. I hope he succeeds in a big way, if for no other reason than I love games, and Smed doing well in the future means there are good games coming out of Amazon.

Click to expand...

He's a terrible CEO.

He promotes the wrong people, is unable to set a clear and distinct vision, and is unable to hold/attract talent. I chuckle at "some mis-steps". C'mon, SoE/DBG is a studio that made one huge early success and then rode the company into the ground based on those "mis-steps" all under his watch. The launch of SWG early, SWG NGE, Vanguard debacle, EQ2 debacle, closed more MMOs than any other studio in history, the ponytail era, the EQ3/Next/Landmark debacle, etc.

Let's take for instance his first words as "CEO" of this new studio. Instead of taking his years of mis-steps and experience to craft an elegant vision for his new studio, he devolves into the whole "MMO are different now" and "can't compete with WoW" speak. What he should have said, if he had learned anything, is this: "After years of leading large development studios in the MMO space, I've learned one thing... make games that are fun to play. That's what we're going to create and that's what we'll be know for."

That would have made me optimistic. I just see more of the same.

Interesting if this new studio from Amazon is planning to make an MMO

Tearofsoul said:

Interesting if this new studio from Amazon is planning to make an MMO

Click to expand...

I was wondering that myself since there is was no indication in the press release but my gut reaction is no, only because it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me to make two MMOs at the same time.

all the employees from that hero's song (failed) kickstarter company are joining amazon under smed

Could this turn it around for Vang...er...Everqu...er...Landm...fuckit...

I'm in the crowd that says Smed is overrated in the gaming industry. I wish I was wrong because that would mean he had a proven history of successfully managing numerous A-list titles under his name. Instead, I've come to the conclusion that he is the primary reason for their failure because of the shitty way he manages the companies that develop them. He has a consistent track record of rushing shit out the door just to grab those precious box sales dollars when the real prize was the monthly subs revenue (which steadily tanked one shitty release after another). He did it for years with the EQ franchise and then just did it again with Hero's Song.

I give him credit for pulling in Brad and Co 20 years ago to create EQ but I'm having trouble giving him any more than that.

zero_name said:

Amazon is making an MMO. I don't if this will be one. With Smedley's ties to the industry and this being the portion of the forum that would likely get the thread title reference, I made it here.

All things considered, I just really wanted to make the thread title. I had little else to contribute.

Click to expand...

It is called New World. But I am not sure if Smed is working on this...

I like how "We can't keep up with the poopsockers" has become a justification for "We're going to make no effort whatsoever. Slap some PVP and griefing in and hope people amuse themselves."

I think most of you are being a tad harsh. I'm no Smed apologist but considering everyone equates any MMO in the last decade and half to WOW and holds it to account; it's not like the market is very kind.

Yet here we are years later, nostalgia or not, yearning for something similar. Wish him the best, surprise us you fool!

The players benefit if he succeeds in not producing a turd.


... I still remember dancing with a giant Smed gnome in Freeport

smed has the biggest boner for twitch integration with games.

No real game would be enjoyable with some fag fucking up your experience from a chat command.

How you know a company ultimately has poor interviewing skills.

Do you people actually consider Destiny to be more of an MMO than H1Z1 is? Seriously? People these days just label any game that is online as an MMO apparently.

So, first 3 things about this new fantastic project they announce are Amazon cloud usage + Twitch integration + CEO Smed. Yeah right, now im really really hyped

Vinjin said:

He has a consistent track record of rushing shit out the door just to grab those precious box sales dollars when the real prize was the monthly subs revenue (which steadily tanked one shitty release after another). He did it for years with the EQ franchise

Click to expand...

I don't expect anything from Smed, and I doubt any future MMOs would amount to anything. However, is the quoted part actually fact, just conjecture, or even made up? I could believe it if you just mean the time EQ spent on life support but still made expansions, but that was post-WoW and EQ was a footnote at that point. I thought EQ did pretty well for 4 years in both box sales and subs.