Ryan Davis

Ryan Davis (June 4, 1979 – July 3, 2013) was an American video game journalist and podcaster. Davis began working as a technical supporter before being recruited for the gaming website GameSpot by Jeff Gerstmann in 2000. After Gerstmann was fired, the two founded the gaming website Giant Bomb in 2008, with Davis serving as its senior editor and hosting the Giant Bombcast podcast.

Davis died on July 3, 2013, of natural causes. Multiple gaming websites and personalities wrote tributes to Davis, with the illustrator Olly Moss and musician C418 creating art in his memory.

Early life Ryan Davis was born on June 4, 1979, in Los Alamitos, California, and moved to Petaluma as a child. According to his father, Richard Davis, his son showed admiration for computers and video games from an early age. After graduating from the Nonesuch School in Sebastopol, Ryan Davis worked in San Francisco as a technical supporter. Davis said, "Jeff's firing just destroyed me, and I think it shed a light on the other stuff that I had been kind of rolling along with". Tribute articles were written by Justin McElroy of Polygon, Ryan Aston of Slant Magazine, Greg Miller of IGN, with condolences paid by James Brightman of GamesIndustry.biz, Kris Ligman of Game Developer, Hanuman Welch of Complex, and Patrick Garratt of VG247. Dave Snider, a colleague and friend of Davis, created the website thanksryan.com as a memorial, Personalities such as Gary Whitta, Sean Vanaman, and Tim Schafer, along with the companies Amazon Video Games and Ubisoft, paid their condolences on Twitter, and his death became the third-most trending topic on that platform. while for GameTrailers, Geoff Keighley hosted a memorial episode along with guests Michael Pachter, Jessica Chobot, and Kyle Bosman. C418 created the track "Taswell" as part of the Minecraft soundtrack as a tribute honoring Davis.