Outriders mission written two years ago predicts Capitol riots, refers to ‘redneck mob storming DC’
Outriders appeared to predict the January 2021 Capitol riots with a prescient line written two years ago (Square Enix / Getty)
Did Outriders predict the storming of the Capitol building in Washington D.C?
It certainly appears that way. The just-released online shooter game set on an alien planet features a mission named “Reunion” in which the player and soldier Jakub reminisce about their days back on Earth.
The Outriders mission can also be played in the game’s free demo. The conversation plays out as follows:
You: “I’m getting major déjà vu in this place. Reminds me of that mission in Damascus, where we rescued those diplomats.”
Jakub: “I had to save your ass from that machete-wielding mob.”
You: “Ha! More like that time I had to save your sorry ass from that redneck mob storming DC”
This definitely sounds like a reference to the failed coup attempt in January 2021 when Trump supporters rushed the US Capitol building. It resulted in five deaths and two further deaths by suicide in the following weeks.
The rhetoric of the event repeatedly used the words “storming” and “mob”, so it appears quite specific.
Of course, this is mere coincidence. The coup attempt occurred on 6 January while the Outriders demo was released on 25 February. That’s not enough time to make dialogue changes.
Developer People Can Fly and publisher Square Enix confirmed the coincidence in a statement to Kotaku.
It reads: “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. Any similarities to real-world events are purely coincidental.”
So far Outriders has been hugely popular, causing major issues with the online servers at launch. Fans of the game took to Twitter to release their frustration at the developers directly.
The game is an online multiplayer shooter that sees you on the alien planet of Enoch once Earth becomes uninhabitable thanks to war and climate change. You’re given supernatural powers in your battle against Enoch’s indigenous life forms.
Outriders is available on PlayStation, PC and Xbox consoles.
