Hongyu in Chinese, the student's name, is seen on a spacesuit, which appears under a message in Chinese that reads "heroes never die", in the game. [Photo from web]

A student in Guangdong who died while in pursuit of a motorbike thief has been memorialized in a popular video game.

Wu Hongyu, a freshman from Guangdong University of Engineering, witnessed someone stealing one of his classmate's motorcycles on May 23 and jumped on his own to give chase.

Unfortunately, the 20-year-old collided with the stolen bike during the pursuit and died from his injuries three hours later.

He had been looking forward to the launch of Overwatch, a video game from US developer Blizzard Entertainment that was released the day after his death.

In his honor, Blizzard has now included Wu's name in the game on a spacesuit, which appears under a message in Chinese that reads "heroes never die".

Guangdong University of Engineering has also set up a special 300,000 yuan ($44,800) fund called the Wu Hongyu Loving Care Fund to encourage good Samaritan acts and help students in need.