It is an extremely sad time for the video game industry. We have lost a great journalist and an incredibly real personality. It was announced on Monday, July 8thÂ that Ryan Davis, senior editor of Giantbomb.com, has recently passed away. From the moment of the announcement the entire gaming community has come together in mourning and in a spectacular celebration of appreciation and memories. Ryan Davis was the third trending Twitter topic worldwide and every video game website has at least an article to honor him. Harmonix also made an enormously heartfelt video in tribute which I’ll link to at the end of this article. Words and tributes will never be enough to show how great a man Ryan Davis was, but we should all do whatever we can to remember his greatness.

Ryan Davis was a very happy gentleman and he touched the lives of many. What made Ryan such a unique personality among the many video game entertainers and journalists out there was the fact that he was straight up. He was never fake, he always spoke his mind, and he was completely and utterly anti-bullshit. He co-created a website whose sole purpose was to be fun and entertaining and to not focus on the super-serious business aspect of video games. At Giant Bomb you’ll never find any clickbait articles; you’ll only discover the best video game podcast in the world and a ton of ridiculously entertaining video content.

I have been an avid follower of Giant Bomb since the site was created in 2008. I had followed the Gerstmann controversy over to this new creation and instantly fell in love; however, it was the Metal Gear Solid 4 spoilercast in the same year that got me obsessively hooked onto the site. Since then I have never missed a Bombcast and I’ve watched as much video content from the site has humanly possible. Giant Bomb has created some of the best content to ever grace the internet, like the Endurance Runs, Ryan Davis’ own This Aint No Game, The Big Live Live Show, Thursday Night Throwdown, and many many others. I have been a subscriber since that was an option and I have purchased Giant Bomb merchandise. It is important to state that I have never followed the lives of any personality or celebrity to this degree in my entire life, so this recent news of Ryan’s passing honestly delivered a massive hit straight to my heart. All death is tragic, but what separates him from most public faces was that he wasn’t playing a character or reading a script. He was Ryan Davis, he interacted directly with the fans, and that’s how we knew him.

This tremendously devastating news came to a shock to everybody. No one ever expected this. Ryan Davis died way too young, at thirty-four years of age, and only days after his wedding. Words cannot describe how tragic this is. This is a great sadness and a loss to myself and everyone that Ryan Davis has affected.

Goodbye, old friend. We love you and you will be missed. Our thoughts are with Ryan’s family and close friends. 1979-2013. King of the Summerjams.

Links:

The Harmonix Tribute

The Giant Bomb article

Thanks Ryan

Polygon’s article

Cards Against Humanity’s Max Tempkin article