Billy 'Wicked' Wilson passes away

Billy "Wicked" Wilson, one of the chief architects of the Internet gaming news machine, has passed away at the age of 33 with his family at his side.

Billy was best known on the Internet for establishing gaming news website Voodoo Extreme, where he quickly earned himself a reputation for his comprehensive and unapologetically colloquial reporting style.

Although not everyone got on with his no-bullshit approach, those that did get on with it helped raise the profile of Voodoo Extreme, or VE3D, until it was probably the most popular gaming news destination on the Internet at its peak.

Despite suffering in the wake of the dotcom bust, Billy never tried to get his millions of visitors to foot the bill for hosting, maintaining his dignity right up to the point he left the scene for a spell before returning to co-found GamingGroove.com.

As someone who had to compete with Billy to a certain extent during my tenure at Gamespy, the news of his passing came as a great shock. His reporting style divided opinion while he was alive, but he was a man who loved his games and helped gamers to smile even wider, and there are scant few others who can claim to have done as much for Internet gaming as he did. He will be missed.