Games industry veteran Brian Ayers has died at 42

Games industry veteran Brian Ayers has sadly passed away at the age of 42 following a short illness.

A post shared today (September 24) on Twitter announced the news of Ayers’ passing which reads, “Devastated that we’ve lost [Brian Ayers] who was truly the best of us – warm, funny, brilliant, a huge loss to us all.” The post links to a JustGiving post that is actively raising money for his funeral.

The post confirms that Ayers died yesterday on September 23. “He was a much-loved son, brother, partner, friend and colleague,” it reads. “We have set up this Just Giving page to help his mother Jackie, stepfather Barry and partner Kay with the considerable costs of a funeral.”

Devastated that we’ve lost @Kaaaaneda who was truly the best of us – warm, funny, brilliant, a huge loss to us all. Games industry, please share this link far and wide xxx https://t.co/iTYlCWCs05

— Ainsley Harriott Cinematic Universe (@NoMagRyan) September 24, 2022

Brian Ayers was best known for his contribution to the games industry, starting out at Konami back in 2008  as a sales and trade marketing executive until he became the PR and marketing manager in 2010. After three years in that role, Ayers moved on to become Konami’s European brand manager until 2014.

From Konami, Ayers was hired as the senior brand manager at Capcom in 2015 where he worked for five years. Most recently, and still staying in the managing role, he went on to become the senior product marketing manager at Paradox Interactive – the developer behind Crusader King 3 and Stellaris – from January 2021 until September of that year.

Ayers even went on to become the senior product marketing manager at Sega European in 2021 where he remained until his recent passing.

From the years 2001 to 2006, the industry veteran was also a part of a punk rock band based in London called Hitechjet. Ayers provided vocals for the group which featured four other members.