The writers of the co-op shooter "Outriders" would never mention the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol in January. People Can Fly and Square Enix confirmed to Kotaku that the game's dialogue was written and recorded "years ago."

"Any similarities to real-world events are entirely coincidental," a representative told the site.

The similarities Kotaku asked about sound like a direct reference to the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Early in the game, a player character says he saved another character "from a mob of rednecks attacking DC."

The term "storm" has a particularly strong connection to the January 6 riots. For example, the Wikipedia page on the incident is titled "2021 Attack on the United States Capitol."

Also, the perpetrators are repeatedly referred to as "rioters," with "redneck" meaning rural, white, or reactionary. Had "Outriders" been released later this year, it would have been hard to imagine that the line would not refer to January 6. But in fact, it does not.

Kotaku points out that the line is in the demo for Outriders, which was released on February 25 (the line was pointed out on Reddit shortly after). Not only would it have been impractical for the developer, People Can Fly, to record this line and add it to the game within two months, it would have made no sense to do so.

Another coincidence related to current events was set in motion in 2019, when Ubisoft announced plans to release "Rainbow Six Quarantine" in early 2020. after the Covid-19 pandemic began in early 2020, Ubisoft postponed the game with this unfortunate name (although it involves an alien parasite, not a virus). At this point, Ubisoft is calling it "Rainbow Six Parasite" internally, and it seems unlikely that it will still be called "Quarantine" at launch.

It is tempting to think that these examples tell us something about the world: has the world moved so fast that outlandish scenarios invented by science fiction writers keep coming true before their work is published? Maybe so, but I don't think these examples support that conclusion. Many fictions have absolutely no synchronicity with the real world, and I do not believe that the rate of strange coincidences has increased. Coincidences were common even before the years in which many of these events occurred.

For example, in "Back to the Future Part II," there is a gag about the Chicago Cubs winning the 2015 World Series. This was a good joke because when the movie was made in the 80s, the Cubs had not won the World Series in 80 years. This is because the Cubs won the World Series in 2016. (This is not one of the many hoaxes associated with Back to the Future, but an actual fact.)

The use of the term "storming" in the Outriders line seems rather prescient, but Nostradamus was not the only one who could have imagined the political violence that would occur in Washington, DC. The Division 2 is about political violence and a deadly virus in Washington, DC, and was released at about the same time that Square Enix said it was writing Outriders.

As Chris said last July, current events watered down the fun of "The Division 2" a bit. However, "Outriders" is quite interesting. Or completely awful. I'm not sure. I haven't played it yet and may have a different answer. Morgan is still writing his review and didn't like it much the last time I checked. But Steven, who has completed the first part of the game, said he's enjoying it. Even the Internet is divided on whether "Outriders" is any good.