Recent events surrounding the H1Z1 community and their publisher, Daybreak Game Company, has many players, fans, and pundits in the dark. Immediately following the April 23rd sanctions handed down by the U.S Department of the Treasury against numerous Russian oligarchs, Daybreak has laid off a substantial part of their work force and has openly misrepresented their ownership—whether that occurred on the front or back-end of this situation is the only question.

But why? Why would a company who repeatedly confirmed who their ownership group was through various interviews done with web sites (including their own), magazines, and other media not want the truth to be known? Either this or the company has been so incredibly negligent that it is a wonder how any of the management are still employed.

In the political landscape of where, if you say it enough you’ll start to believe it, the most likely reason the Daybreak Game Company want people to believe that there are no potential ties to investment groups such as Columbus Nova, and its parent organization Renova Group is that it’s bad for business to be associated with Russian backed assets frozen by the U.S. Additionally, when sanctions are imposed, growth stops and some contracts cannot be fulfilled.

The implications of the business affiliation are of great concern not only to Daybreak, but to the video game industry. With the recent freezing of Russian Oligarch Viktor Vekselberg’s U.S assets, which includes the US investment arm Columbus Nova, the commercial relationship between these companies and Daybreak has come under the microscope.

To help understand what has happened leading up to this point, it helps to see a visual timeline of events thus far.

May 5, 2007 – Columbus Acquisition Corp, a blank check company files with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission outlining business relationships and their related transactions. In the document on page 63, it states that “Columbus Nova” (CN) is the U.S.-based affiliate of the Renova Group (RG) of companies. The full document found here:

Refers to Jason Epstein, an important figure in the whole situation as an “executive officer” on page 48.

In the same paragraph, the role of the listed executive officers is described as on where “they will spend more time investigating such target business and negotiating and processing the business combination (and consequently spend more time on our affairs) than they would prior to locating a suitable target business,” and further goes on to state “We presently expect Messrs. Intrater, Lipari, Epstein and Ernestus to each devote at least 10 hours per week to our business. We do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the consummation of a business combination.” A comprehensive list of investigating activities can be found on page 42 of the filing.

February 2, 2015 – Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) announce rebranding to Daybreak Game Company (DGC).

Reddit post by user SOE_Legion, aka former Community Manager Greg Henninger announces that SOE has been acquired by CN, also stating “we expect to have even more resources available to us as a result of this acquisition.”

A now redacted press release of the acquisition, which can still be found as a web cached version here , also states that it has being subject to acquisition by Columbus Nova. Directly quoting Jason Epstein “Sony Online Entertainment, newly rebranded as Daybreak, is a great addition to our existing portfolio of technology, media and entertainment focused companies.” and then SOE president John Smedley “We are excited to join Columbus Nova’s impressive roster of companies. They have a proven track record in similar and related industries.”

March 13, 2015 – DGC LLC’s now redacted privacy policy is updated and states on page 6 “Daybreak Games may share your Personal Information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy (except for direct marketing) with its parent companies, which consist of Columbus Nova Private Equity Group (“CN”) and any company controlled by CN that directly or indirectly owns fifty percent (50%) or more of the outstanding equity in Daybreak.” Columbus Nova Private Equity Group is a subsidiary of CN listed on their contact us page. This privacy policy page was available on DGC’s from 2015-2017.

March 24, 2015 – CN’s Our Team page states, (in relation to his role at CN) that “Jason is active on the Board of Directors and a member of the company’s Management Committee directing key strategic initiatives; and CN’s technology and media investment platform. In this capacity, Jason sits on a variety of Boards of Directors, including Rhapsody Music International (Chairman), Day Break Games (Chairman), GenePeeks, and 300.”

April 28, 2015 – Two months after starting to work for DGC, John Smedley is directly quoted in an interview with Polygon stating, “Sony started to explore, looking around for a good potential home for us, one that could give us the things we needed, like multi-platform,” he says.”After kissing a lot of frogs, we finally found a happy home with Columbus Nova. It was really a match made in heaven.”

May 13, 2015 – Three months after starting to work for DGC, John Smedley is directly quoted in an interview with Venturebeat stating “We were fortunate enough to find really good investors in Columbus Nova, and we really feel like we are spreading our wings for the very first time. We are very excited.”

January 19, 2016 – Almost 12 months after beginning to work for DGC, John Smedley is indirectly quoted in an interview with Polygon the written piece saying “Smedley says that, although Daybreak employees and the investor that backed Daybreak, Columbus Nova Technology Partners, were supportive, he ultimately concluded that starting fresh was his best option.”

September 19, 2016 – A Statement of Information is filed with the Secretary of State of California with Jason Epstein listed as a manager. The address listed under his information is 900 Third Avenue, 19th Floor. The same listed on CN’s Contact Us page

October 13, 2017 – RG still has CN listed in its group structure.

December 5, 2017 – A Statement of No Change is filed with the Secretary of State of California referring to the last Statement of Information on 19/9/2016

April 6, 2018 – The U.S Department of the Treasury announces the freezing of multiple Russian Oligarch’s U.S assets in a press release.

April 6, 2018 – A Wikipedia account named “Daybreakpr” attempts to make edits to the DGC Wikipedia page, the attempted edit can be found here. This edit is later removed for failing to cite a reliable source. Subsequently, the account name raises alarm surrounding conflicts of interest, and results in the blocking of ability to make edits.

April 24, 2018 – Massivelyop breaks the story alleging that CN, parent company of DGC could be in jeopardy as a result of asset freezing. At the time of publishing the article, DGC’s own media release linking CN and DGC is a live, working link. However in a later update, Massivelyop notes that DGC has removed the press release. In the same update, the article publisher also points out this tweet where a reader uncovers DGC’s own privacy policy, stating that a subsidiary of CN is DGC’s parent entity.

April 27, 2018 – A forum post addressed to the Daybreak Community claims Daybreak has always been primarily owned by Jason Epstein, acknowledges that their own statements indicate DGC was acquired by CN and that they are taking measures to rectify this perceived misinformation.

Takeaways from the timeline: