The news is sad and brutal. Ryan Davis, 34, longtime Senior Editor at Giant Bomb passed away last week just a few days after getting married.
Davis’ passing was announced today by his heartbroken colleagues at Giant Bomb.
Goddamnit.
It’s always too soon. It’s always so painful. We always wish we had more time with them.
Like many of you, I got to know him through his media presence. I was late to the Gamespot shows he did with Jeff Gerstmann, but I was a loyal listener to the Giant Bombcast for years. At first I couldn’t tell the difference between Ryan and Jeff’s voices, which seems weird now. I figured it out quickly enough. Ryan’s was the one that was quicker to laugh. Well, it was more of a giggle, wasn’t it? On the show he seemed ever-cheerful. He was our affable host. He seemed eternally gracious.
A few years ago, he started letting me appear on the Bombcast. These would be the main times I would see him from year to year, and so my mental image of him is sitting behind some audio equipment, headphones on, eyes darting at whatever they need to dart at while making the best gaming podcast on the Internet.
I think I was an OK guest on Ryan’s podcast. I tried to be informative. I didn’t try to be funny. The other guys and guests were funny. They’d be the ones to make him laugh. Still, I didn’t feel good about my showing. I saw Ryan the next day. Ran into him at E3 where he was unusually smartly-dressed (that’s photo proof in the image up top). I am not an insecure person, but I told him about my doubts and second-guesses. Don’t worry about it, he said. He told me I did fine. But maybe I should have been in a different segment with the newsier people? No, he told me. He wanted me in the segment I was in. He wanted that mix of personalities. It was just what he had hoped for. He had a kindness and a confidence about the whole thing that stuck with me. He was a good guy.
I’ve mostly interacted with Ryan through Twitter and Facebook. I was delighted to see he’d tied the knot. I’m now crushed that he is gone.
My and all of the Kotaku team’s hearts go out to Ryan Davis’ family and friends. I’ve got a couple of Bombcasts on my iPhone and now I think I may never listen to them. I like the idea that there will always be some new laughter of his to hear. So long, Ryan. I look forward to hearing you again.
To contact the author of this post, write to stephentotilo@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @stephentotilo
Comments
27 responses to “Ryan Davis, RIP”
Well, now i feel bad for not knowing who he was when he was alive. Recently married too? Damn…
An unexpected shock. I haven’t really been following the Giantbomb guys over the last couple of years, but I do remember when Ryan and Jeff started up the site and their podcast. They would spend half the episode trying a new type of energy drink to help get through a WoW raid. A funny guy. Memories….
Wow I am shocked. I’ve been religiously listening to the bombcast the last 3 years and watch their quick looks constantly. He was funny and awesome. Damn.
i’ve been watching just about every quicklook and other video these guys post for the last year or so now and this is extremely sad news… he was such a great personality and so dedicated to the industry
shitty way to start the day
I just can’t imagine listening to the podcast without his voice in it 🙁 Such devastating news.
34??? Gosh that’s way too young. More than half of his life was ahead of him. Sucks to hear.
Being in my 30s, I consider this sobering.
(Also, I expect it will only get worse.)
Yeah me too. I’m 33 and I want a lot more years than this.
Yeah man, I was born in 79 like Ryan. It’s sobering indeed. When my father died at 35 (I was 12 at the time) I remember thinking “boy, 35, that’s a pretty good age”. Now that I’m 33 with two boys of my own I realism 35 is YOUNG. He just have been SO pissed off to have had terminal cancer in the prime of his life with two sons just growing into adulthood.
I feel sorry for Ryan’s new wife too. Poor lady.
Don’t get fat.
Problem solved!
My dad died at 35 from cancer. He was a thin, healthy, non-smoking, soccer playing man.
I get the downvotes, because… well. Timing, man. I don’t know what Ryan died of, but if it was a heart-attack or something, that’s real poor timing.
All the same… being overweight is a serious health issue, just as much as smoking, and people really need to get off the fat denial kick.
Yes, it’s not easy to reduce weight thanks to all the temptations laid out in front of us and the cost and effort involved in eating carefully around a medical condition (if you have one, and you’re not just over-eating/under-exercising), but that doesn’t change the fact that is it is dangerously unhealthy. Being fat is bad. There is no running away from that. At best it taxes your body and makes life inconvenient and uncomfortable. At worst, it kills you. ‘Don’t get fat’ is one of the single most important health/longevity tips to follow in modern society.
A radiographer friend routinely sees morbidly obese patients come in for a scan, saying: “Hopefully we can finally figure out what’s wrong with my back/knees! The doctor can’t explain it.”
They are always holding on to some hope that it’s something OTHER than the very first thing their doctor told them, which is: lose weight. Their doctor CAN explain it, they just don’t want to listen.
Your joints do not grow like bone and muscles do. They are designed to support the weight of one healthy person, and you are carrying the weight of two (or more) healthy people. They cannot sustain this, long-term, and will degrade and fail. They do not grow back.
But noooooo, blaming weight for health problems is such a fad, such an obvious, knee-jerk reaction, there must be something ELSE going on we can fix, doctors are just taking an easy out! It is to eyeroll.
Trying to find other underlying problems while overweight is like checking your house for termites WHILE IT IS ON FIRE.
Well said. If it was in fact his weight that caused his death (for all we know he cause have been killed in a car crash) it’ll hopefully be a wake up call for a subculture that is notorious for being unhealthy. Still, saying ‘don’t get fat, is just rude.
As an aside, the reporting on deaths in the industry is very vague sometimes.
I mean, every now and then we hear about it – like that developer who was crossing the road and got hit by a fugitive in a car chase – but I wonder about that. Respect? Lack of details? If Don Mattrick dies tonight as part of his week-long hookers-and-coke Zynga welcome celebration, will we hear about the cause? Or only if it involves something especially saucy? We’re always hearing about ‘losing the fight with cancer’, for example…
(Actually, there’s a line which pisses me off. ‘Losing the fight’ implies clearly you weren’t fighting hard enough, and you might’ve lived if you’d ‘fought’ harder. How the fuck do you actually FIGHT cancer anyway? You get treatment. There’s no bloody virtue to survivors taking the right steps beyond biology. Fuck that noise.)
I was thinking the same thing. It’s done from a friends perspective instead of a journalist perspective
Nice compassion you’ve got there.
First up. Sounded like a great guy. Will have to look up the podcasts at some point. 🙁
Ok, now I have said that…. @rowan…. I really REALLY hate it when people say that. Its stupid. Its the stupidest thing you CAN say about someone when there dead. There dead, so how did he have more ahead of him? Just a pet peeve. lol
So sad. I listen to their podcast everyday on the bus to and from work.
Even though I didn’t know him personally, it feels like a close friend has passed away.
Feel so bad for his wife, to lose him on their honeymoon.
Super bummer. Does feel like a mate passing. With 3 hours podcasting a week plus quick looks and live shows I feel like I spent more time these last few years with the GB crew then some of my real friends.
I’m absolutely heartbroken. His voice has been making me laugh for years now. I was absolutely bursting to meet him at PAX. He is going to be SORELY missed. I want to listen to the last episode on my iPhone but I think I might actually cry if I do =(
You’ll be missed Ryan, you were one hilarious motherfucker!
I just tried to listen to it. Did not make it far, it’s so very sad.
Was really wanting to say thanks for the work at PAX this year.
Bloody hell
I don’t think I will because it’s so sudden. When you hear his happy voice one week and then this happens there’s no time to process it. I can’t believe he will not be on the next podcast, it’s just so hard to believe.
Also, we shared the same birth year. WAY too soon.
Oh duder that would be tough.
This is the worst news. Video games journalism is suddenly a lot poorer.
The elephant in the room….any of you guys know what happened to Ryan??
Shocking news. Easily my favourite gaming identity, funny, sharp, professional and most of all a gamer. Seriously saddened. Best laugh I’ve heard.
Just… Speechless.
Jesus Christ. I’ve been listening to the crew since their “Hotspot” days and Ryan has always been my favourite of the awesome foursome. While I’ve never met them, they’ve entertained me for years, once a week with their podcasts where I catch up on whatever crazy is going on in their lives.
Goddamn, this is the second time a ‘celebrity’s’ death has actually hurt me. The only other time was Roger Ebert and even then, we all knew he was on borrowed time. This is an absolute sucker punch. I was just catching up on their last few podcasts (got backed up by E3) and Ryan was just talking about getting his arcade cabinet fix. Godspeed buddy.
Absolutely shocked. How did he die? Wasn’t he and Jeff coming down to PAX? Lost for words here…
I admit I’ve never heard of the man, but my condolences to his family, his poor widowed wife, and the many people who’ve obviously adored his work. R.I.P.