Upon Kim Jong II Death, A Video Game Gets The Last Laugh

On Monday, December 19th, North Korean authorities reported Kim Jong II, age 69, to be most positively dead. The Dear Leader of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) died on Saturday the 17th. He will not be missed by too many people outside of North Korea (except for hardcore Communist). But in a rather unique turn of events, Kotaku, which is an excellent source of video game-related information,  reports that the 2011 video game Homefront actually predicted his death sometime in 2012. Which is quite a coincidence seeing as the highly speculated year of the Armageddon is  barely two weeks from now!

The game was developed by Kaos studios and the majority of the games story line penned by John Milius, who alongside Francis Ford Coppola  wrote the script for the movie Apocalypse Now (awesome movie, if you have not seen it, go watch it NOW).  Milius also did some writing for the movie  The Hunt for Red October (another awesome movie you should watch – NOW).

Kotaku describes the games story line  like this:

“In Homefront, a game which takes the death of Kim as the catalyst for a series of North Korean actions which culminate in a Communist conquest of Northern Asia and subsequent occupation of much of the United States, his demise is listed as having taken place in 2012.”

That’t a bit to close for comfort.

Meanwhile in Japan… 

When Homefront released in Japan THQ had to edit the script so as not to show Kim Jong II as having passed. Considering Japan and North Korea are not on speaking terms, I am surprised they made this a requirement for the games release.  On the other hand, aside from the fact that he was very much alive when it was released, it could also be that Japan is adhering to  religious regulations which may prohibit predicting the death of people – including enemies.

I hope this doesn’t get me banned from North Korea…

Source: Kotaku 

Screen capture credit: Kotaku