GTA 6 fan Void Only dies before launch, fans pay tribute

Jerry Fort, the terminally ill GTA 6 fan known online as Void Only, has died before he could play the game he spent his final months waiting for. His sister broke the news on his social media accounts, IGN reported on November 2, and Brazilian outlet Critical Hits says she did it in a TikTok video posted that same day. According to Critical Hits, Fort was 25 and died on October 29. IGN's account says he died over the weekend, so the two outlets don't quite agree on the date. His sister thanked the many people who had tried to help and support him.

Void Only's fight for a lung transplant

Fort first reached a wide audience in August with a TikTok video that went viral. In it, he explained that he was in hospital with interstitial lung disease and needed a lung transplant. His case was unusually difficult: his lungs were attached to his chest wall. IGN says that made any operation bloody and dangerous, and Critical Hits explains that surgeons would have to separate the lungs from the chest wall and remove them before they could transplant new ones. In the same video he said all he wanted was to play GTA 6, and he poked fun at Rockstar's repeated delays.

Players rallied behind him. A GoFundMe set up to cover his transplant and other needs raised $50,000 within days, IGN reports. Critical Hits adds that support grew again just before Rockstar's Extended Look at GTA 6 at the end of August, when Fort renewed his promise to stream the game on launch day.

He got his transplant in September, but it did not go smoothly. IGN says complications eventually caused him to lose function of his body. Critical Hits, citing his sister, says he suffered complications and a serious infection after the operation. He had planned to stream GTA 6 with his online community once it arrived on November 19.

Fans ask Rockstar for a tribute in Leonida

Under his sister's post, fans shared their grief that he didn't make it to launch. "I was really rooting for him. I'm sorry for your loss," one commenter wrote, according to IGN. Another pledged a small launch-day gesture: "I'm adding Void to my gamertag in his honor when GTA releases."

Some players want something more permanent. Critical Hits reports that fans have begun asking Rockstar Games to put a tribute to Fort somewhere in GTA 6's open world. One widely shared message, in translation, promised that "the first ride through Leonida will be for him and for all the others who didn't make it." Critical Hits points out that no official tribute has been confirmed, and neither outlet reports any public response from Rockstar.

Both reports note that Fort stayed upbeat through his final months, and that optimism runs through many of the messages his followers have left. His sister also said their mother plans to hold a balloon release in his memory, with details to be shared later, according to IGN.