Game critic John ‘TotalBiscuit’ Bain dies at age 33

The YouTuber/Games Critic John Bain, who is more commonly known by fans as TotalBiscuit or the Cynical Brit, has passed away after a four-year battle with cancer.   

News of his passing was confirmed on both Bain’s personal Twitter account and from his wife Genna’s Twitter account, less than two months after Bain’s retirement as a Games Critic in early May. During his retirement post, Bain noted that “conventional chemotherapy’s effectiveness had been exhausted” and that he wanted his Co-optional Podcast to continue after his passing.  

At the start of his gaming career, Bain hosted WoW Radio, a famous World of Warcraft podcast, between 2005 and 2010, starting his YouTube Career after losing his job at the hight of the global financial crisis in 2010, commentating World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Beta gameplay. During this time Bain’s channel quickly grew in popularity, joining The Game Station (now Polaris) YouTube Multi-Channel-Network (MCN) shortly after.   

Bain is best known on YouTube for his “WTF is” series, this “content patch” news reports, his coverage of indie games and his industry analysis videos, holding strong opinions regarding consumer protection laws and journalistic integrity. As his illness progressed, Bain’s Co-optional podcast became a central pillar of his YouTube channel.