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Rupert Easterbrook, a games industry veteran of 40 years, has sadly passed away. Known most for his role as the producer of Star Citizen, Easterbrook started his games industry career as an associate producer at EA in 1987.
Star Citizen producer sadly passes
Announced by classic game developer Jane Whittaker, known for coding the Atari Jaguar Alien vs Predator game, Easterbrook passed earlier this month.
“It is with the deepest sadness, that I can confirm the passing of video games industry veteran Rupert Easterbrook,” Whittaker wrote on Linkedin. “Rupert passed away suddenly and I have been asked to share funeral arrangements when they are available.”
The veteran game developer also shared another tribute on Twitter, saying: “Deeply saddened to share the passing of Rupert Easterbrook, producer of Star Citizen, EA producer for Populous, Powermonger. EA Europe founder, Sega, Take 2. Condolences to all of his family and friends.”
Over his 40-year history of game production, Easterbrook was a founder of Electronic Arts UK and worked as a senior producer across Sony, SEGA, Take 2 and more. The games industry veteran also served as a producer on Star Citizen, but recently left to join Luminaries Entertainment.
At the time of writing, Luminaries Entertainment is still working on multiple unannounced projects, both of which are new IP created by the team. Only one of the two projects has managed to reach the prototype stage.
Despite not being a common name for most fans of gaming, Rupert Easterbrook’s legacy within the games industry has left an unforgettable mark. As a major force of gaming’s early rise, and specifically during the 3D era of gaming, Easterbrook is responsible for a lot of the games we fell in love with across the 90s and early 2000s.
As one of his last projects, Star Citizen is still deep in development, but it’s single-player portion, Squadron 42, is finally set to release in 2026.