An Outriders reference some have associated with the failed January 6 insurrection in Washington, D.C. by supporters of then-President Donald Trump was unintentional, according to a joint statement by the game's publisher, Square Enix, and Polish developer People Can Fly. In reality, the companies say, the script was finished long before 2021.
In an early Outriders mission, players rendezvous with a character named Jakub. A long-time friend, Jakub brags about an old combat mission on Earth - to which the player character brings up the time he/she had to "save your sorry ass from that redneck mob storming D.C.". On January 6, Trump supporters including right-wing militias and QAnon followers broke into the U.S. Capitol building, attempting to halt the certification of President Joe Biden's election victory. Over 140 people were injured, and five people ultimately died - some of the protesters threatened to capture or even hang politicians like Vice President Mike Pence, accusing them of being traitors. The situation was eventually brought under control by Capitol Police and National Guard troops, some of whom are still on high alert in the area. Many attackers caught on camera are facing criminal trials.
"We wrote and recorded the script for Outriders a couple of years ago and all aspects of it are entirely fictional and related to the backstory of the game," claims a statement sent to Kotaku from representatives of Square Enix and People Can Fly. "Any similarities to real-world events are purely coincidental." While the companies could have made last-minute changes, it is true that developers often lock in the story and script for a game well ahead of launch, only making edits if absolutely necessary.
In fact, People Can Fly would have had to go to extreme lengths to insert a Capitol riot reference. The quoted dialogue can be found in the game's demo, which premiered February 25. That was a little over a month after the riot, and just over a month before the game's official launch. Its plot is also set in the distant future of 2159, so none of the characters would have been alive to witness 2021.
One possibility is that the Outriders line was a reference to U.S. politics in general. Many far-right groups have threatened violence in the past few decades, as demonstrated by online rhetoric and events like the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people. The trend only intensified during the Trump era - sometimes leading to violent skirmishes at events like the Unite the Right rally in Charlotte, North Carolina. QAnon supporters believed that Trump was fighting a global cabal of Satanic pedophiles, giving them extra reason to storm the Capitol on January 6. This would have been an incredibly grim thing to directly reference in a video game, and as it is, it's still a frightful coincidence.
Outriders is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Kotaku