Blackmail Backfires in Video Games.
- If you have multiple spouses in Fable II, you will receive a letter threatening to inform your spouses of your infidelity. The blackmailer doesn't consider that you might just kill him, even if you're so evil you have horns.
- If you've chosen the Earthborn backstory in Mass Effect, a member of the gang you used to be a part of tries to blackmail you over this fact, thinking it will ruin Shepherd's career. The nice option is to point out that it's not going to work: Shepard's superiors in the Systems Alliance already know about Shepard's past, the asari and salarians will instantly recognize it as a smear campaign, and the turian officer who's listening in on the conversation will point out that having a reputation as being someone who overcame their past crimes to become a soldier devoted to protecting others is something his species would respect. The middle of the road option is to point out that you can legally execute him where he stands and no one will do anything about it. The not-nice option is to simply shoot him in the face.
- In Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Big Bad Coldman was a former CIA chief who was reassigned to Costa Rica after his fall from grace. This worked to Coldman's benefit, as it allowed him to start the very illegal Peace Walker project with no oversight. To do this, he hired one of America's greatest roboticists, Dr. "Huey" Emmerich, to develop the robot's body. Huey, however, is a staunch anti-nuke advocate, but almost every robot design he "created" was actually plagiarized from the Soviet Union, a fact Coldman uses to keep Huey from whistleblowing the project. However, when Coldman reveals he plans on nuking an innocent city to test Peace Walker's capabilities, Huey decided that he didn't care about his career being ruined anymore and promptly turns on Coldman.
- The third Arc Villain of Persona 5, Junya Kaneshiro, threatens to release scandalous photos of you and your team at his nightclub unless you pay him 3 million yennote . Seems pretty cut and dry, advantage Kaneshiro...except you're the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, and due to the way the Metaverse works, Kaneshiro's blackmail has just given you a ticket straight to the front door of his Palace. The rest is about as you'd expect.
- Even better is the entire scenario is a chain of this. Principal Kobyakawa lightly blackmails Makato into rooting out the phantom thieves because of his connection to the conspiracy. She proceeds to blackmail the Phantom Thieves not to get what the Principal wants but to take care of the criminal pressure targeting Shujin Academy students, who are being blackmailed until it's obvious something's wrong. Makoto joins the Phantom Thieves, the Principal gets left high and dry on information (resulting in the conspiracy deeming he's outlived his usefulness), and the criminal syndicate that falls apart was sending money to the conspiracy the Principal was a part of. None of this is a major blow to the conspiracy itself, but they weren't the blackmailers in this particular scenario.
- RoboCop: Rogue City: The quest "Who Killed Casey Carmel?" involves this. Casey Carmel was a prostitute who had sex with advertising producer Jerry Jenkins and secretly recorded the act with a hidden camera, intending to blackmail him with it. Jenkins found out and murdered her to keep her from revealing his "activities".
- In the Forensics story in Trauma Team, a bomber is paying a college student to provide voice talent for her bomb threats — the college student tries to blackmail the bomber. The bomber agrees initially, but after having the voice actor describe his own self ("a Caucasian male") she has him killed off for good.
