Feldon 
Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson, Director of Development / Franchise Director for Everquest, EverQuest II, and EverQuest Next / Landmark has been laid off by Daybreak Games. Georgeson took over as Producer of a then-troubled EverQuest II team and made strides to support the game both inside and outside SOE, add Free-to-Play support, etc. He then moved on to work on EverQuest Next/Landmark and has been focused on those games for the last year and a half. Georgeson updated his Twitter profile a few minutes ago with this message:
Just this guy, y’know?
San Diego, CA (for now)
We now have this tweet from Georgeson which makes it clear:
Yeah, I’m sorry folks but it’s true. LM, eqn, eq and eqii are no longer guided by moi. Other dreamers will steer now.
— David Georgeson (@DaveGeorgeson) February 11, 2015
This very unfortunate. I thought this guy had a great vision for the EQ franchise and especially regarding EQN and Landmark, his passion was very clear. Sad to see him go.
He would be about the last person I’d layoff, while some people find his changes controversial (I didn’t agree with all of them), I can’t doubt they were successful and a breath of fresh air.
And I can confirm he is every bit as infectiously enthusiastic in real life too, I think he will do well where ever he ends up, definitely Daybreaks loss.
I had tipped him to take over from Smedley eventually, I guess there is a good reason I don’t gamble 🙂
While I thought he made some bad decisions and was not his biggest fan, I think Mr. Georgeson has been a real champion for the Everquest franchise and a strong force in keeping it alive. I hope everything works out well for him in the future.
Gobsmacked.
I’ve read comments from people within the EQ2 community that don’t have too much time for him, but personally I’ve always liked him, and as Murfalad says, his enthusiasm is always infectious.
I think it’s a huge loss for anyone who enjoys the EQ franchise in any respect and of course Landmark.
Really worried about what may become of my favourite games now, and especially EQ2.
Have to wonder what Daybreak Games (“Rising Sun”) is thinking, when they terminate people integral to EQ2 and EQ Next. Why terminate people on an active game and active project, unless …
…unless they’re the people being paid the most money and therefore represent the biggest cost savings. Plus, if it heralds a change of direction for the games especially Landmark and EQN then it makes sense to change the people responsible for their direction.
You sir are a moron!
No this just means now it will fail for sure… Was the worst time.
They should have started with Smedley. He is the worst CEO in the history of business. He’s a complete numbskull and Smokejumper should have been promoted, not fired!. I already hate this company.
While I can’t disagree about Smedley, I have to admit to more than a bit of Schadenfreude over Smokeblower getting the boot. He lied to us so many times, I was just waiting for Karma to come back and bite him on the ass.
There was a lot of executive bloat at SOE and I agree with you that Smed is the king of useless bloat. He would have been my first choice on the chopping block. However, it’s possible Smed had somehow protected himself. In that case, I would have offered SJ Terry Michaels’ job, because SJ is far more important to the future of Landmark and EQN.
He was obviously the one that brokered the deal…..
Why has no one seen that yet!
I wish they would just tell us if they’re going to fuck over EQ2 for good, so I can just quit now.
This is one of the layoffs I’m a little surprised about. He was part of Smedley’s upper management elitist clique. Though fact that Smedley is still…you know incharge is kind of hilarious.
He was never part of Smedley’s clique…maybe that was the problem!
I met David Georgeson 2x and both times I felt like he was lying thru his teeth about half the questions people around me asked. It just seemed like a fake smile was always on his face. Just saying that first impressions are usually correct and Daybreak most likely saw the same things.
Georgeson was removed but not Smedley? Smedley is one slimey son of a bitch.
I wasnt a fan of the direction Georgeson took the game in but i accept he did keep it afloat in a form i’m not to keen on but alive non the less.
I am amazed Smedley survives surely his 9 lives are nearly up?
Anyway good luck Dave in whatever you do next.
I just threw up a little. My heart is breaking so hard right now.
=/ One has to wonder if EverQuest will survive in any form with these people making such sweeping, brash decisions as this.
So EQ in any form will now be RiP.. :/ They prob wont want to rush any new packs for either 1 or 2 since they are all about rebalancing the funds probably; to allocate to their first big shot across the bow…
It could though at least mean an even better f2p model and server merging down the road. Still I feel with the loss of these peoples our consistent release of xpacks is over :/
Dont tell me that Fing zombie cash grab somehow helped this all along >.<
I guess EQnext will be delayed now because you cant just keep going mid build with so many changes in the teams.
My heart is also breaking. Dumb move.
Well one thing is certain, since the departure of Dave and the rest of those laid off I have watched the in world population rapidly dwindle and die off. Now a days you are lucky to get 400 players still around. Now maybe this world wipe coming in roughly 2 weeks will draw some back for a bit, but unless the changes also reverses some of the new stuff that went in since he left and drove folks away, the curiosity seekers will last just a couple weeks and then turn around and walk away in even bigger numbers taking more with them. Landmark was meant to be a world where we were the builders, now it is becoming a world we can’t build in. How does Daybreak propose to keep the game alive with just 400 players?!? What happens if after this world wipe even more people say ‘Enough’ and walk?
Easily one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen happen in mmoland. Smedley is so fucking brain dead it’s ridiculous. He offers absolutely nothing to the development process and hasn’t the slightest fucking clue how to appeal to gamers.
Good for Dave though, maybe now his brilliance can shine somewhere that isn’t muffled by retards.
EQN and Landmark will definitely fail and fail hard.
we will not forget you Dave : http://www.guerrier-celeste.fr/48-frontnews/425-ils-ont-ose.html