Brian Ayers has died at the age of 42.

The Sega Europe product marketing manager passed away on Friday, September 23 “after a short illness,” according to a JustGiving fund for funeral costs.

Ayers was approaching his one-year anniversary at Sega Europe, having previously worked in similar positions at other publishers in a career that stretched over nine years.

Prior to joining Sega, he was senior product marketing manager at Paradox Interactive – a role that followed almost five years as senior brand manager at Capcom.

He also spent just shy of seven years in various positions at Konami.

Colleague Ryan King broke the news to the industry via Twitter, adding Ayers was “truly the best of us – warm, funny, brilliant, a huge loss to us all.”

King and other industry peers, as well as trade body UKIE, shared links to the JustGiving fund set up by Ayers’ friend Aydogan Mehmet.

“He was a much loved son, brother, partner, friend and colleague,” wrote Mehmet, adding that the funds will assist with the “considerable costs of a funeral.”

At the time of writing, the fund has raised over £8,000 – approaching triple its goal of £3,000.

Mehmet wrote in an update he was “totally blown away by everyone’s generosity.”