History WarForFunAndProfit / VideoGames

** ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots Guns of the Patriots]]'', however, takes the trope to the other end of the spectrum. It ultimately became clear that Big Boss initially didn't want an eternal World War III, and simply founded Outer Heaven to give people, especially soldiers, a place where they would be free from the '''La-li-lu-le-lo'''. It wasn't until Zanzibarland that he gave up all hope of soldiers being reintegrated into society. Years later, his ideals were further perverted by his successors, [[PowersThatBe The Patriots]], instigating countless conflicts and pouring the world's resources into soldiers and weapons; war ends up replacing oil as ''a commodity'' -- a self-destructive commodity. Investing in war doesn't create new resources, so the world is falling ever deeper into a depression where "oil and gasoline are as precious as diamonds", but attempting to stop war would [[SunkCostFallacy render those investments worthless]], triggering [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt a total global economic collapse]]. It's pretty much the [[AnAesop Aesop]] Creator/HideoKojima is trying to convey: war isn't about right and wrong, it just ''is''.

* Various factions in the ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' series have bonuses that reward engaging in warfare. Conquering all other nations is one of the series' recurrent multiple win conditions, but some civs get rewards just for fighting without even taking any territory. Examples include the Aztecs in ''V'' and the Spartans in ''VI'' who gain Culture for killing enemy units, the Byzantines in ''VI'' whose religion spreads faster when defeating units of a different faith and the Honour policy tree in ''V'' that grants Gold. There are also some unique units in ''V'' that grant points toward your next Golden Age from combat victories -- so sorry about all those dead soldiers, but we really wanted to throw a party.

** In ''VideoGame/AceCombatXSkiesOfDeception'', the BigBad dictator who emerges after a civil war in his country invades a peaceful neighboring country, for allegedly working to prolong the civil war ([[spoiler:in fact the neighbor had been supplying humanitarian aid]]). It's eventually revealed that the whole point was to demonstrate the villain's military might, thereby allowing for lucrative arms trading, particularly advertising his greatest fighter aircraft.

* In ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars'', BigBad Sturm goes for the gold with this trope, creating clones of Orange Star officers to start a ''four-way'' war, with the intent to swoop in afterwards with his own army and take over after everyone's resources were drained.
** Ditto ''Batallion Wars Wii'', where the Anglo Isles ("England") attacks the Solar Empire ("Japan") because the Solar Empire was rumored to be [[FantasticNuke making]] a [[NuclearWeaponsTaboo superweapon]]... and this is less than 30 years after the same thing happened between the Western Frontier and the Tundran Territories ([[UsefulNotes/ColdWar take a guess]]). In BOTH cases, the whole thing was orchestrated by the leader of Xylvania (the closest ''VideoGame/NintendoWars'' has ever gotten to ThoseWackyNazis).
** Days of Ruin has this with Caulder/Stolos and his company Intelligent Defense Systems, which supplies small arms and innovative weapons to both Rubinelle and Lazuria during their conflict. On the personal side, Caulder just likes [[ForScience studying the]] [[MadScientist effects of war and death on humans]].
*** The Beast, meanwhile, is the leader of a group of raiders who prey on the few surviving pockets of civilization... but even if they're set for a while, he'll still attack the villages because he just likes blood.

** In ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2''. [[spoiler:General Shepherd, pissed off that he lost 30,000 men in [[VideoGame/CallOfDuty4ModernWarfare Al-Asad's nuclear explosion]], played Makarov like a fiddle to trigger a Russian invasion of America so that he can turn the USA into the most powerful country in the world through military might and pose himself as a legendary war hero.]]

** In ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyAdvancedWarfare'', the Atlas company begins the game as HiredGuns for the world powers, then begins supplanting conventional militaries after a series of terrorist attacks send world governments into disarray. [[spoiler: It is later revealed that Atlas CEO Jonathon Irons is an OmnicidalManiac who orchestrated the terrorist attacks to allow his company to become a NGOSuperpower.]]

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'': In the game's first act, this is [[TheCaligula Gangrel's]] entire plan in a nutshell: to start a war with Ylisse purely ForTheEvulz. [[spoiler:If recruited later on, long after his apparent death and ousting from the throne, Gangrel will actually admit he started out wanting to forcibly unite Ylisse and Regna Ferox under Plegia so he could prepare for [[TheEmperor Walhart's]] eventual conquest from across the sea, but he quickly found it was far more fun to settle the ancient score between Plegia and Ylisse with war crimes.]]
* In ''VideoGame/TwentyTwentySeven'', Evgeny participates in this in the [[spoiler:Omar ending if you helped expand his territory]].
%%* In the game ''VideoGame/DuneII'' we are also introduced to the house Ordos who also fight for Arakis.
* This is the very premise for the game ''Anime/TheSkyCrawlers: Innocent Aces'', where you work for a company called Rostock against their rival Lautern. As the opening narration summarizes it, "There are those who need war, and those who supply it", casting war as just another normal business activity.
* In ''VideoGame/MetalGear''
** [[BigBad Big Boss]] wanted to plunge the world into "eternal warfare" in order to give soldiers a place in the world. He started off as a fairly standard Bond-esque baddie, but as ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater Snake Eater]]'' rolled in it became apparent that his wild war fantasies were fed by the philosophy of [[TheMentor The Boss]] that the world needed an "absolute timeless enemy". A couple of well-placed prophecies and his increasingly deteriorating sanity helped, too. The concept of a "world of eternal warfare" -- named "Outer Heaven" -- is a recurring theme throughout the series (''[=MGS=]4'' had Liquid Ocelot intentionally name [[spoiler:the game's final location, a warship,]] based on this).
** ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots Guns of the Patriots]]'', however, takes the trope to the other end of the spectrum. It ultimately became clear that Big Boss initially didn't want an eternal World War III, and simply founded Outer Heaven to give people, especially soldiers, a place where they would be free from the '''La-li-lu-le-lo'''. It wasn't until Zanzibarland that he gave up all hope of soldiers being reintegrated into society. Years later, his ideals were further perverted by his successors, [[PowersThatBe The Patriots]], instigating countless conflicts and pouring the world's resources into soldiers and weapons; war ends up replacing oil as ''a commodity'' - a self-destructive commodity. Investing in war doesn't create new resources, so the world is falling ever deeper into a depression where "oil and gasoline are as precious as diamonds", but attempting to stop war would [[SunkCostFallacy render those investments worthless]], triggering [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt a total global economic collapse]]. It's pretty much the [[AnAesop Aesop]] Creator/HideoKojima is trying to convey: war isn't about right and wrong, it just ''is''.
*** To make things worse, it turns out that the ''[=MGS=]4''-era Patriots are [[spoiler:nothing more than [[AIIsACrapshoot rogue supercomputer-A.I., repeatedly performing long-obsolete orders]]]] [[DrunkOnTheDarkSide and driven insane]] [[spoiler:from virus attacks]], and use their powers of manipulation to get the whole world to follow their insanity. They almost succeeded at brainwashing the entire world with nanomachines to ensure they could create a literally-total global war.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'' shows that even after the Patriots were finally defeated, the world is ''still'' stuck in this rut. The BigBad gloats that the Patriots are no longer necessary to maintain the "war economy", people can do it just fine on their own. However, unlike in ''[=MGS=]4'' where the world at large seemed OK with the war economy, almost no-one (including [[spoiler:the aforementioned BigBad]]) supports it here. Apart from [[AxCrazy Sundowner.]]

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' is set in 1980's Afghanistan and Africa, where national armies and proxy factions slaughter each other and the local populations for the two superpowers. It's clear that the war has destroyed dozens of villages and allowed tyrants to rule unimpeded, but none of the factions will de-escalate because it would mean losing everything. [[spoiler:Skull Face's master plan is to fracture the Cold War superpowers into impotent nation-states, by permanently disrupting all global communications with language-triggered parasitic killers and supplying affordable ICBM-equipped MiniMecha Metal Gears to ''everyone''. The end result of this would have been a world locked in a total EnforcedColdWar; every nation in the world would be the same, and capable of empathizing with each other's plights, but all nation-states would also be ruled by whoever (allegedly) owns the nukes, turning the entire planet into a patchwork of third-world cult-ruled dictatorships, all answering to Skull Face alone. No place on the face of the Earth would be free from the warlords and their sexual abuse, slavery, and genocide. And even worse, if any nation-state tried to form allegiances with their neighbors, they would be instantly nuked into oblivion as Skull Face remotely sabotaged their nukes, and their historical intents would be misunderstood by all surviving countries due to lack of a common language.]]
** TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness in ''VideoGame/MetalGearAcid'' was a company, [=BEAGLE=], that existed to orchestrate minor but bloody civil wars, sell huge amounts of weapons to both sides, and profit.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Super Robot Wars Original Generation}}s'', the [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAdvance Shadow Mirrors]] were dedicated to creating endless conflict. Why? Their own dimension's [[TheFederation Federation]] had become corrupt after the [[HumanAliens Inspectors]] had been driven off. They believed that with endless conflict that there would not be any corrupt politicians, and that technology would increase rapidly. The leader points out that since the Divine Crusaders war the strength of Earth has increased rapidly.
** Likewise, from the same game, Mitsuko Isurugi, head of Isurugi Industries, who wanted the conflicts to go on as long as possible so that her company could continue making money by selling their [[HumongousMecha weapons]] to ''every'' side. The only reason why she hadn't been arrested is because her company is the only one still capable of supplying the Federation with mechs and if they had to do some backalley deals to stay ahead of the game, so be it
** Except Einst, maybe because they hasn't any kind of economical activities.
*** The [[EldritchAbomination Ruina]] from ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsDestiny'' live on this, [[spoiler: mostly to gain negative energy for Perfectio and use worlds as fields to cultivate negative energies]].
* The whole plan of the BigBad of the first ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' revolved around causing a huge war between two rival merchant governments [[spoiler:as a way of proving himself worthy of inheriting his dead father's former position as the God of Murder]]. Once the plan is found out it initially looks like he has plenty of backing for this... [[spoiler: but it soon becomes apparent that actual ''war'' is a step too far for most of the Iron Throne. Not for moral reasons, they just aren't privy to the 'become the new God of Murder' plot or would see the profit in it if they were, and that leaves war disruptive enough to cut down profits.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}'' starts with the colonies in the brink of war. It later turns out [[spoiler:the Nomads are secretly parasitizing the top politicians in Sirius and using their power to declare all-out war, in order to soften the human defenses and let the Nomads mop the sector with their blood, and the Order is actually here to defend the Sirius sector against the Nomads]].
* This is essentially the motivation of the Prince of Highland, Luca Blight in ''VideoGame/SuikodenII''. He starts a massive war between the newly allied nations of Highland and Jowston by orchestrating a FalseFlagOperation, in which he betrays and butchers a band of his own nation's child unit the night they are to return to their homes and blames it on Jowston. He uses this as his justification to invade Jowston and level it to the ground, hoping to torture and murder every last one of its citizens (usually by his own hand). Unlike most examples here, his motives aren't profit or terrorism... [[PsychoForHire he just enjoys killing]].
* In ''VideoGame/RuneScape'', most of the quest 'Royal Trouble' revolves around this. [[spoiler:A group of kids unable to pass tests that would make them full adults of their tribe go to two warring islands and decide to start a war, stop it, and then be seen as heroes.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Utawarerumono}}'', court adviser and HumongousMecha pilot Hien encourages Kuuya to unite the world under the Kunnekamun for the sake of peace. Fellow adviser and pilot [[AxCrazy Hauenkua]] also wants to invade the other countries as Hien does, but only so he could kill people.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'': While he didn't actually start the Crystal War, the [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent goblin]] Boodlix certainly makes a profit from selling goods to both sides of it. Although Boodlix is a freelance that fights with the Beastmen Confederate, the Scholar Maruna-Kurina believes that Boodlix might be persuaded to fight for the Allies if it would help make the war (and thus his profits) last a little longer.
* ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'':
** The fundamental plot of the game is an attempt by an American-based weapons corporation to boost their profits by causing a new Cold War between China and the US. Unfortunately, their calculations are ''off'' by a bit - the cold war they're attempting to start will actually become a hot war if they aren't stopped, so its up to Mike Thorton to put an end to the plot before the nukes start flying.
** The player can also uncover some additional examples of this as the game progresses. For example, Mike can dig up evidence that a semi-anonymous US Senator wants to arrange for a war in Central Asia or the Middle East (he doesn't terribly care where) so he can sell off a few thousand artillery pieces manufactured by a company that he owns but are being left unused. There's also evidence of war profiteering, where the aforementioned arms company wants to sell weapons to both China and Taiwan, but give them weapons with different ammunition specifications, so they have to keep buying separate weapons' packages.
* The ExcusePlot of the [[UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn Saturn]] shooter ''AMOK''. Two warring countries have finally made peace after 47 years of war, but the weapon manufacturer of both sides is pissed and so hires a mercenary to reignite the hostilities.
* In ''VideoGame/MountAndBlade'', if you are a lord and talk to another noble of your faction who likes you and possesses evil characteristics, he may propose starting a war with a neighbouring kingdom by raiding some caravans for this trope if you ask him for a task. Justified in that Calradian warfare offers many chances and few risks for nobles. The worst that's going to happen to them is being taken prisoner for a while until they can escape or are ransomed. On the other hand, they can improve their standing with the king and other nobles by being successful in battle, possibly obtaining new fiefs or even being promoted to Marshall, and raiding enemy villages and caravans happens to be very lucrative.
* In ''VideoGame/IronStorm'', the ForeverWar has turned into this, with the arms industries and armies being an important part of the stock exchange [[spoiler: and manipulating the USWE and TheEmpire to prolong the war in the name of profit]].
* Heavily hinted to be the motivation of The Administrator from ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2.'' As the acting [=CEO=] of two feuding {{MegaCorp}}s, [[NGOSuperpower each of which controls one half of the world]], ''and'' as [=CEO=] of her own Weapon Supply Company, The Administrator has [[OneWorldOrder everything]] [[OneNationUnderCopyright to]] [[TakeOverTheWorld gain]] from keeping the conflict going.

* In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'', with Hitler erased from time (and thus no World War II), a rather bored UsefulNotes/JosefStalin woke up one day and realized that starting a war to rule all Europe is something he'd like to do. In the end it turns out he was manipulated by the Brotherhood of Nod, many members of which are secretly on his staff.
* After the war in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'' Uprising, Future Tech has taken the opportunity in acquiring the technology of the three war weary factions when no one's looking.
* While this more or less applies to any time in ''VideoGame/SidMeiersPirates'' the period 1640-1659 is called just that -- "War for Profit".
* The opening gambit of [[spoiler:Hades]] from ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'' is to engineer a war between the nations of the world over a MacGuffin [[spoiler:he completely made up]]. In his case, the reason is [[spoiler:[[ForTheEvulz he's the ruler of the underworld]], and he's learned how to turn all the souls that reach his realm into a valuable resource. Inefficiently. That, and they're apparently delicious]].
* Inverted with the [[ProudMerchantRace Roving Clans]] in ''Videogame/EndlessLegend'', who are ''incapable of declaring war'' because it's bad for business; can't have armies roving around plundering trading routes and scaring away the customers! It's probably a good thing too, because they're bad at combat. Luckily, they can hire mercenaries -- and bribe them with mouth-watering delicacies and extra gold to make them more motivated in combat -- who can engage in {{False Flag Operation}}s.
* The whole point of Null Sec in ''VideoGame/EVEOnline''. If your corp isn't making a profit on a war, someone certainly is.
** The ongoing Red Vs Blue fight in Eve also qualifies.
** Pretty much anytime something blows up, it has to be replaced by buying it from another player. If you're lucky, your corp is footing the bill.
* In ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'', Faro Automated Systems, the company that developed all the machines that would build the machines on the post-apocalyptic Earth, was deeply into this. One of their recoverable corporate memos even mentions a sales exec arranging for two hostile enemies to "accidentally" meet at the same time for a sales pitch, and the resulting physical violence ended with both sides increasing their bids for weapons by nearly forty percent because of how pissed off they were at each other. [[spoiler:In the end, Faro's greed led to developing robotic weapons that were self-directing, self-sustaining, and unhackable, and when those robots [[AIIsACrapshoot glitched out and stopped following orders]], Ted Faro's perfect money-making war machines [[HopelessWar completely destroyed humanity.]]]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'': Talon is a nebulous secret organization that promotes insurgency and warfare "to make humanity stronger through conflict". Profit is made from taking advantage of these conflicts, but a few high-ranking leaders (Doomfist) buy into the tagline.
* The Gunrunning and Smuggler's Run patches for [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV Grand Theft Auto Online]] allow the player to oversee and participate in the smuggling of weapons and other contraband.
* The ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' franchise has this as a recurring theme, as first [[EvilInc the Umbrella Corporation]]; then their disbanded investors; and [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard more recently]] the mysterious group "the Connections" develop biological weapons to sell for warfare. Often, [[PsychoForHire mercenaries and the like]] have worked with them -- sometimes [[DragonWithAnAgenda with their own agendas]] that would allow them to profit from their military actions, perpetuating this trope.
* One of the few heroic examples, ''VideoGame/ApexLegends'' has Rampart, a gun modifying specialist who sold AceCustom guns and gun mods that made her a popular choice for weapons in the Outlands; she doesn't hold a grudge if she gets taken out by her own weapons as it is proof that she is that good at her job. While somewhat sarcastic and a tried-and-true Brit, she has a hardworking attitude that makes up for her personality. Unfortunately it was her arrogance that led to her shop getting burned down.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Ketsui}}'', EVAC Corporation is a MegaCorp that, in the midst of a WorldWarIII, sells weapons to all sides of the conflict to keep its profits going. They maintain a powerful standing army too and even intervene in any attempts at peace between nations, just to create an excuse to continue manufacturing and selling weapons.
* Various factions in the ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' series have bonuses that reward engaging in warfare. Conquering all other nations is one of the series' recurrent MultipleWinConditions, but some civs get rewards just for fighting without even taking any territory. Examples include the Aztecs in ''V'' and the Spartans in ''VI'' who gain Culture for killing enemy units, the Byzantines in ''VI'' whose religion spreads faster when defeating units of a different faith and the Honour policy tree in ''V'' that grants Gold. There are also some unique units in ''V'' that grant points toward your next Golden Age from combat victories - so sorry about all those dead soldiers, but we really wanted to throw a party.
* ''VideoGame/MegadimensionNeptuniaVII'':
** {{Averted|Trope}} by [[MoneyFetish Affimojas]] of the "secret organization" [=AffimaX=]. When asked by the BigBad if he would like to see this trope put in action, Affimojas scoffs at the use of war in terms of armed conflict, seeing it as bad for business. ''He'' would much rather fight wars in the fields of espionage and knowledge-brokering in order to control and disperse (true or fake) information to make his profits [[spoiler:and it helps that deep down he's not actually the sort of guy who wants blood on his hands]]. Indeed, [=AffimaX=] unknown to most of the world actually controls the world's largest information-sharing site [[spoiler:and when the BigBad initiates a CosmicRetcon]] they use it to profit from the worldwide chaos and people's need for information.
** Played straight by The Order, a group of mercenaries based in Lastation who sold themselves and weapons for war before Noire crushed them in the past. Due to Noire's disposal from her position as leader [[spoiler:thanks to the aforementioned CosmicRetcon]], the remnants of the Order reunited and took over Lastation with plans to start again by waging war on the other nations. They're based off several such groups that appear in ''Franchise/MetalGear'', particularly in their usage of ChildSoldiers [[spoiler:of which the Gold Third member K-Sha was a former part of]] and various weapons like the M-Gear. Part of Noire's mission during her personal chapter is to stop them.

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGear'', [[BigBad Big Boss]] wanted to plunge the world into "eternal warfare" in order to give soldiers a place in the world. He started off as a fairly standard Bond-esque baddie, but as ''[=MGS3=]'' rolled in it became apparent that his wild war fantasies were fed by the philosophy of [[TheMentor The Boss]] that the world needed an "absolute timeless enemy". A couple of well-placed prophecies and his increasingly deteriorating sanity helped, too. The concept of a "world of eternal warfare" -- named "Outer Heaven" -- is a recurring theme throughout the series (''[=MGS=]4'' had Liquid Ocelot intentionally name [[spoiler:the game's final location, a warship,]] based on this).
** ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots MGS4]]'', however, takes the trope to the other end of the spectrum. It ultimately became clear that Big Boss initially didn't want an eternal World War III, and simply founded Outer Heaven to give people, especially soldiers, a place where they would be free from the '''La-li-lu-le-lo'''. It wasn't until Zanzibarland that he gave up all hope of soldiers being reintegrated into society. Years later, his ideals were further perverted by his successors, [[PowersThatBe The Patriots]], instigating countless conflicts and pouring the world's resources into soldiers and weapons; war ends up replacing oil as ''a commodity'' - a self-destructive commodity. Investing in war doesn't create new resources, so the world is falling ever deeper into a depression where "oil and gasoline are as precious as diamonds", but attempting to stop war would [[SunkCostFallacy render those investments worthless]], triggering [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt a total global economic collapse]]. It's pretty much the [[AnAesop Aesop]] Creator/HideoKojima is trying to convey: war isn't about right and wrong, it just ''is''.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'': In the game's first act, this is [[TheCaligula Gangrel's]] entire plan in a nutshell: to start a war with Ylisse purely ForTheEvulz.