Obituary: Mike Fahey of Kotaku passes away

Mike Fahey of Kotaku, one of the longest-running writers at one of the oldest and most widely read video game publications online, passed away Friday. He was 49. For over 16 years, Fahey wrote with great hilarity and deep affection for toys, snacks, giant robots, video games and the emotional bonds that bind them all to his readership.

Fahey’s death was confirmed friday by his partner, Eugene Abbott. In 2018, Fahey suffered an aortic dissection, a tear in the body’s main artery, which left him paralyzed from the chest down and forced him to use a wheelchair. Fahey had another tear like this in April and died of an infection linked to these chronic health conditions.

Mike Fahey joined Kotaku in 2006 after setting up an online presence with comedic reports of a missing Pikachu plushie. “He had a Pikachu who kept kidnapping people,” Abbott told Polygon. “People held up a sign that said, ‘We’ve got your Pikachu.’ I think the last time he was seen he was strapped to the front of an 18 wheeler.

Mike Fahey with his partner, Eugene Abbott, in 2010.

Photo: Eugene Abbott

Brian Crecente, Kotaku’s editor-in-chief from 2005 to 2011, recalled that Fahey was a commentator on a blog he had started before Kotaku’s founding. When Crecente Kotaku was named editor, Fahey was his first hire.

“The reason I hired him and the reason he kept working there is because he was such a funny guy by nature,” Crecente said. “So many who try to write funny things, it comes forced, but for him it was an innate ability. It was just so natural. I forced him to do research work and write longer texts, but I think he liked to make people laugh.”

Fahey came out of his shell when Crecente hired him in November 2006. He has remained in service ever since. “I had a job again, a girlfriend and eventually my own apartment, with no roommates,” Fahey wrote. At Kotaku, Fahey became known for his reviews of tasty treats – Snacktaku was the title of these posts – and for celebrating the lighter moments of video game culture.

Brian Crecente, Flynn DeMarco, Mike Fahey, Brian Ashcraft and Michael McWhertor of Kotaku, ca. 2007.

Photo: Brian Crecente

Fahey found his voice as a fan of all pop culture. His interests and enthusiasm include The Transformers, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter, Madden NFL and most importantly role playing. In October 2009, he published a groundbreaking reminder of his own video game addiction while playing always looking, and how it broke off a relationship with Abbott that he would soon mend.

“Everyone would say, ‘Ha ha, did you date the guy you ignored for video games?'” Abbott said Monday. She seemed to understand that Fahey was heading for level 40 – which she hated nonetheless. “But there wasn’t a single part of me that was ever like, ‘Does he care? Does he like the video game more?’ I was like, ‘Bruh, hurry up.’”

Posts about a Michael McDonald Fight Stick, or how to cook an authentic Castlevania Wall Turkey, were common for his workday. In 2008 his one-man campaign on behalf of Stan Bush got ‘The Touch’, the power ballad of 1986 Transformers: The Movie animated feature — added to Guitar Hero 5.

In one of Fahey’s most memorable and rowdiest messages to Kotaku, he was playing a video game in his office, looked over his shoulder and saw “a spider the size of a small Volkswagen” on the ceiling above him. He blasted it with a can of Elmer’s CraftBond glue, then smashed it with a copy of Plants VS Zombies Garden War for Xbox One. The cabinet is still glued to the ceiling.

Fahey invited comparisons to the big, overgrown boy cliché, not least because he was 6-foot-6. Abbott recalls often returning from business visits to conventions and exhibitions with a suitcase full of surprises for their children. “He came home with a suitcase and opened it, and all the candy and toys came out,” they said.

“He came home from Momocon 2015 [in Atlanta] with lots of ramune and Hi-Chew [candy]’ said Abbott, ‘called the children in and opened them on the bed, then fell asleep, surrounded by candy.’

Polygon news editor Michael McWertor, who was hired in Kotaku shortly after Fahey, had a similar memory, covering San Diego Comic-Con together. “I came back to the hotel room, and there was Fahey, sleeping on his bed, surrounded by all the toys he bought off the trading floor, like a kid at Christmas,” he said.

Michael Fahey is survived by Abbott and their two sons, Seamus and Archer, both 11. A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help the family.