Heartbreaking news for any socially conscious gamers out there: Michael Devato, the brave man who tried to warn the world about the crisis of lag in games by sailing across the Atlantic Ocean atop his PS4, has drowned on the first day of his journey.


Devato reportedly made it just under 15 feet off the coast of Florida before perishing beneath the waves. He was 24.

As many gamers know, this sad story began in early 2018 when a particularly laggy round of Super Smash Bros. prompted Devato to realize he had to draw attention to this woefully unaddressed issue. After being ignored for weeks by his local representatives, Devato bravely took to the web, calling for an end to game lag by 2025 and raising money for his ill-fated journey to sail across the ocean atop a PS4.


Unfortunately, even as his courageous pledge to action won him a legion of hardcore followers online, it ignored several small but crucial details about a PlayStation 4’s design that doomed the voyage before it began.

Early this morning, Devato greeted supporters and the press at a dock in Ft. Lauderdale, carrying his PS4 Pro, controller, and wireless headset with him. Witnesses say he then tossed the console into the ocean and jumped in after it, bravely attempting to sit atop it without any flotation device or sailing equipment whatsoever. Devato managed to stay afloat for several minutes as he kicked and paddled five yards from the dock with his controller before finally disappearing beneath the waves forever.


Several lag activists who were on the scene speculate that the power cord likely wrapped around his leg and dragged him underwater, while others say he was doomed by the significant weight of the 35 games in his backpack. It’s also unclear what he would have done with those games during the voyage given the complete lack of a power source on the Atlantic Ocean. The only thing for certain is that Devato is now a martyr to gamers everywhere who suffer from gaming lag. We must heed his call to end this epidemic once and for all.

Then, and only then, can we know that the sacrifice of this gaming hero was not in vain.