Stewart Gilray, the CEO and founder of Just Add Water and an industry veteran from the 1980s has passed away aged 51.
Having started as a freelancer in 1988 and worked as a programmer at Psygnosis, Bullfrog, EA, Argonaut and more, he moved into production roles at 21st Century Entertainment, Grolier Interactive, Revolution and Runecraft.
Stewart founded Yorkshire-based Just Add Water in 2006, a company that has worked on a wide variety of games in partnership with a range of developers in its 15 years, including Oddworld New ‘n’ Tasty, Volume: Coda, Sniper Elite VR and Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality. There was even a PS minis collaboration with TheSixthAxis co-founder Alex Carroll!
As someone with such a long history within the industry, his legacy is obviously felt in far more ways than just the games that he worked on and released, and there are many tributes to him being shared on Twitter.
Our condolences and thoughts go out to Stewart Gilray’s wife Bec, their children, his friends and colleagues.
The news of Stewart’s passing came from his long-term friend Shahid Kamal Ahmad – possibly best known to PlayStation fans for his time at Sony bringing great indie games to PS Vita and PS4 in the early 2010s.
Heartbroken and utterly devastated to have lost my beloved friend @stewartgilray. pic.twitter.com/vbDBUWk78R
— Shahid Kamal Ahmad (@shahidkamal) January 6, 2022
Shahid had been tweeting regular updates on Stewart’s condition as he was hospitalised with Covid-19 and following complications.
It’s a reminder that, while the latest variant is speculated to be milder, we do need to continue to be cautious in everyday life, get vaccinated and try to stay safe.
