Can video games predict the future?

By now you may have heard that EA’s Madden NFL 15 nailed the results of the Super Bowl XLIX over in the USA (it’s apparently a big deal there).

A simulation run in the game predicted that one of the sports teams (the New England Patriots) would defeat another sports teams (the Seattle Seahwaks) with a final score of 28-24.

Presumably this would happen with a ball of some sort – I’m not sure how these things work.

To cut to the chase, the game nailed it. That’s exactly what happened, and apparently it has been able to do it (though not quite as perfectly) many times before.

Is this just a coincidence? Illuminati interference? Is it related to the Madden curse in any way?

Surely it can’t have anything to do with EA’s developers being really good at injecting team data into its systems or something.

This is not the first time games have proven to be adept fortune tellers, though.

Here are a number of predictions made by games that have come eerily close to hitting the mark.

Madden NFL 2015 prediction

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon predicted the Russia-Georgia invasion

2001’s Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon is probably the scariest game prediction come true. Not only because of the events, but also because of the exact times.

The game predicted that in 2008 a restless Russia would move to annex Georgia, an act which was publically condemned by the USA, UK, and Germany. The Ghosts are deployed in response to this move.

Back here in reality, in August 2008 after years of tension between the two nations, Russian president Vladimir Putin invaded Georgia.

No Ghosts were deployed, and it was later discovered that Georgia was actually deemed the aggressor in the situation – but the alignment makes for one scary on-point prediction.

Ghost Recon

Deus Ex (sort of) predicted 9/11

A technical limitation in the original Deus Ex, the World Trade Centre towers could not be displayed in the background of the New York missions.

Developers Eidos explained away the niggle by saying that in the game’s world, the towers were destroyed by a terrorist attack.

Deus Ex was released in 2000, a year before the 2001 9/11 attacks. The game also involves the Illuminati, but we’re not drawing any conclusions here.

Deus Ex New York – Lady Liberty also seems to have lost her head.

Final Fantasy 8 predicted the rise of HD

Perhaps not a spot-on prediction, as talk of high-definition digital signals has been around for decades, but 1999’s Final Fantasy 8 had the “HD cable” feature quite prominently as a plot point in an early mission.

In Final Fantasy 8’s world an old radio communication tower would re-introduce an analogue broadcast after online HD cable had been the only way to broadcast for 17 years.

Here in real life, online HD digital content is currently the ‘it’ thing – if you don’t live in South Africa, that is. Here we’ve been waiting 4 years for government to get to grips with the digital migration.

Final Fantasy 8 Communication Tower

Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3

2011’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 didn’t strike any bulls-eyes in terms of predicting things, but both games had two similar trends: Terrorism in Paris and the Russians.

More specifically, both games feature Paris as a hot-bed of terrorist activity, and prominantly feature rising tensions between Russia and the USA between the year of 2014 (BF3) and 2016 (MW3).

Meanwhile, in the real world, the year is 2015 and the relationship between Russia and the USA is at one of its lowest points, and recent violent attacks in Paris have put the city on terrorism watch.

Modern Warfare 3 Eiffel Tower toppling.

So, can games tell the future?

We asked the question, so you deserve and answer. And that answer is – probably not.

There are more game events out there that show games are actually useless at predicting anything about a real-world future than there are games that get it right.

While the world certainly seems like it’s run by some Illuminati-led war economy like Metal Gear Solid 4’s world of 2014, private military forces are definitely not running the show.

Also, no massive mechs carrying portable nukes and crazy nano-technology (spot-on with all the drones though, well done Kojima).

Similarly, the world didn’t crumble under the force of a solar flare in 2012 like Assassin’s Creed had in mind (and no Assassin vs Templar battle that we know of).

And definitely no space invasion (suck it, Space Invaders).

So I rate we can just chalk this all up to creepy coincidence. Right guys?

Right.