David DeMartini, a well-known former executive at Oculus VR and Electronic Arts, passed away at the age of 56.
In recent weeks, DeMartini, known as DeMar, wrote on his Facebook page that he was undergoing a lung transplant. His daughter posted yesterday on Facebook that her father passed away from complications from the transplant.
Veteran journalist and producer Geoff Keighley praised DeMartini’s impact on the industry in his own post on Facebook. I did interviews with DeMartini when he was EA, and he always had a jolly sense of humor and a big laugh. He clowned around with Keighley in a video about EA’s launch of The Godfather video game. He pretended to beat up Keighley, as if he were a mobster. DeMartini was burly guy, and that was an easy role for him.
DeMartini joined EA in 1999 as a senior vice president, and he stayed at he company for 15 years. He worked on projects such as Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and also helped build the EA Partners brand, which enabled the publisher to partner with well-known game developers.
In December 2013, DeMartini left EA to join Oculus as the company’s head of worldwide publishing. He was there for eight months, and he stepped down in July 2014. After that, he began consulting.
In a statement, a spokesman for EA said, “David DeMartini was an institution here at EA for many years. His trademark wit, passion and warmth shaped every team, game and project he touched. We’ve lost a great one, and our hearts go out to his family, friends and everyone that had the great fortune to know him. DeMar will be truly missed.”
And Oculus remembered one of its early supporters as well.
“David DeMartini was an early pioneer at Oculus and we were fortunate to learn from him, to call him a friend and to experience his incredible determination and infectious humor. He will be greatly missed and our thoughts are with his family and friends right now.”