10 Times Video Games Accurately Predicted The Future
8. Command And Conquer: Red Alert 2 Predicts 9/11
The cover art for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 sees Russian-American actor Igor Jijikine staring stoically at the player. It’s memorable in its own nostalgic way but it’s also quite unremarkable. Some variations also feature New York’s skyline also in the backdrop.
However, the original artwork for Red Alert 2 was all New York and no Soviet soldier. He’s been placed on the box to essentially cover up the game’s first round of artwork.
With the game centering on a fictional war between Allies and Soviets, Red Alert 2 specifically involves a story of the invasion of America. As such, developers Westwood Pacific went for a striking image of a bombing rush on America’s east coast. This meant a plane flying amongst New York’s skyscrapers and an explosion swallowing the buildings, most prominently with the World Trade Center in the middle.
Red Alert 2 released in October 2000, less than a year before planes were flown into the twin towers in the most shocking terrorist attack on the Western world.
As such, all future releases of the game featured Igor Jijikine instead and EA even supplied retailers with replacement covers for their previous stock.