Jason Brookes

1967–2019

Paying tribute to the zeitgeistshaping former Edge editor

Jason Brookes, editor of Edge from 1994 to 1998, passed away on December 2 following a long illness. His perfectionism and his passion for videogames, coupled with a vision for Edge and gaming as part of wider contemporary culture, set the magazine’s direction during its formative years. With a particular interest in music and the visual arts, he was the ideal person to help chronicle a new era of videogames as defined by Sony’s PlayStation.

After studying at Manchester Metropolitan University, Brookes moved to Bath to write for SNES magazine Super Play in 1992. His deep knowledge of the Japanese gaming scene fuelled the magazine’s identity, ensuring that it stood apart from its contemporaries, setting the tone for the next step in his career.

Brookes joined Edge as a writer for its launch in 1993 under original editor Steve Jarratt. “Jason always looked to the future, which was ideal because that was the whole point of the magazine,” Jarratt says. “If he hadn’t been on Edge at launch, it would not have been as successful.” Remarkably, Brookes was promoted to the editor chair’s by issue ten.

Inspired by gaming’s fast pace of change in the ’90s, he treated every issue of Edge as an artistic project. As Simon Cox, who worked alongside him, says, “I’ve still not met another editor who was as obsessed with the details, with the quality of the writing, the games we covered or even the music we played in the office.”

Moving to San Francisco in 1998, Brookes studied design and illustration while writing for US and Japanese media including Xbox Nation, Famitsu and LOGiN. His interest in music and design expanded over time, but his appreciation of the videogame’s unique potential never waned.

We offer our condolences to his parents, David and Glenys, sister Sarah, and brother Matthew.