Remembering Andrew Fitch

Up until mere weeks ago, I knew Andrew was waging a battle with cancer, but I had reason to be hopeful. A week and a half ago, his current situation was finally made public, and I was given more cause for concern. Days ago, his situation suddenly seemed to take a turn for the worse. And then, just a little over 24 hours ago, I found out he was gone.

Some of my first memories of my time working with Andrew Fitch at EGM were not really knowing who he was when we first met, and then being pissed off at him for the way he had edited a preview I’d written for our latest print issue. Fast forward a bit, and he’d become one of my best friends in the office as well as one of my closest confidants.

While we never bonded over passions of his like baseball—I left that to our sports-loving ex–Reviews Editor Ray Carsillo—Andrew and I shared a deep and long-running appreciate for Japanese gaming. Being into that specific segment of games from across the ocean often feels like a world unto itself, separated from much of the rest of the industry’s goings-on. Andrew was someone that I could quickly tell not only actually cared for Japanese gaming’s bad along with its good, but also someone who’d had a history with the various games and their creators that was similar to my own.

As someone who came from a gaming media background very different from (and sometimes directly at odds with) Electronic Gaming Monthly, I’m not sure I would have survived joining the new era of EGM nearly as well had I not had Andrew around to make me feel like a welcome part of what we were trying to accomplish. He was someone who could advise me on the “EGM way” in those times when I needed some help with that kind of thing, but who also supported me and my writing even when it strayed from the way things had always been before. Where as once I had feared him touching any of my work in the copy editing process, I came to appreciate the ways in which he helped me shake off the rust and better hone my craft.

Andrew was a very private person who didn’t always let people get too close, while I’ve often shied away from being too social for my own personal reasons. Because of that, he and I never really had the friendship outside the walls of EGM that we could (or probably should) have had. Even so, I came to consider him a very close friend and someone that I cared about, and it hurts to know that he’ll no longer be a part of my life—not to mention the incredible hole now left in lives of his family, friends, and loved ones.

I’m sorry that you left us so soon Andrew, but I’m also thankful that I had a chance to be a part of the adventure that was your life while you lived it.