I spend a lot of time and money on video games. Over the winter break, a friend of mine delivered the custom gaming PC he built for me. I bought a PS4 and a PS5 after saving up probably too many paychecks. My Nintendo Switch has seen more hours of use than my laptop. I have multiple controllers, headsets and other accessories, and I even have a PlayStation+ subscription.
My favorite game by far, and the most hours I’ve ever sunk into anything, is “Cyberpunk 2077.” It’s a first-person RPG set years in the future, in the fictional Night City. Featuring actors like Keanu Reeves and Idris Elba, it’s no surprise it cost CD Projekt Red over $400 million to create and market, making it one of the most expensive games to develop. Conversely, it also made profits in excess of $750 million and, by November 2024, was one of the best-selling games of all time.
In December, Obsidian Entertainment released a gameplay trailer for their sequel to 2019’s “The Outer Worlds,” another game that seeks to reveal the flaws of a corporation-led society driven by indentured servitude and capitalistic greed — and another one of my favorites.
But don’t call me a hypocrite for spending money on my favorite video games, even though they have clear anti-capitalist and anti-corporation agendas.
Given the cash flow surrounding “Cyberpunk 2077,” it might surprise folks that is has an anti-capitalist and anti-corporation story. Keanu Reeves’ iconic character Johnny Silverhand treats players to a multitude of rants on the cruelty of the game’s fictional corporations, and it’s clear in the story missions and character dialogue that the player is meant to sympathize with him despite his terrorist actions.
“Is it a little hypocritical? Yeah, because a corporation made it, a big corporation made it, and I’m sure they held back a ton of punches,” Chloe Cardoza, a graduate student at DePaul and Cyberpunk fan, said. “I don’t want to say the word radical, because it’s not super radical, but it is pretty radical. Like, you play a game where you’re literally supposed to sympathize with a domestic terrorist and also commit acts of terrorism.”
But the game’s “radical” socio-political ideals don’t stop it from engaging in that which it seeks to critique.
Andrew Selepak, a University of Florida professor familiar with the video games industry, understands the irony, but he advises: “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”
“Most popular games are sports games. Your FIFA, Madden,” Selepak, a professor of mass communication and social media, said. “So if you’re a big game designer, go where the money is. You have to pay salaries. You have to pay for the production. They’re obviously made by big companies.”
“So I think, rather than it being that they’re making this thing that kind of goes against their purpose. It’s more they’re making this thing because they can still make money off of it, because there’s an audience for it,” Selepak said.
And, unfortunately for my anti-establishment ego, that audience includes me.
Video games, like music, television and movies, sit in the crossroads of entertainment and art. They’re multi-billion-dollar industries full of companies that don’t always have great ethics at the forefront of their business models, but they also bring art and storytelling to countless people.
“It doesn’t bother me so much when artists make money, you know, specifically off of art itself,” Cardoza said.
There’s a quote from “Disco Elysium,” a game with a similar anti-capitalist perspective, that has stuck with Cardoza: “Capital has the ability to subsume all critiques into itself. Even those who would critique capital end up reinforcing it instead.”
And I believe it to be true — all the major critiques of capitalism I’ve consumed have reinforced its presence in my life, from subscribing to streaming services to enjoy something like “Andor” on Disney+ to buying merch for my favorite punk band. To be honest, video games aren’t really any different.
So yes, I’m pre-ordering “The Outer Worlds 2,” and I’ll probably do the same with any sequel to “Cyberpunk 2077.” These agenda-infused games are created because there’s an audience for them — and I guess that audience is me.
Related Stories:
- Got games? Video games serve as best group activity during Omicron peak
- Video games are still my safe haven one year later
- Gaming Under The Influence in Lincoln Park combines booze and video games
Stay informed with The DePaulia’s top stories,
delivered to your inbox every Monday.