History CorruptCorporateExecutive / VideoGames

* The villain of ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' is the Iron Throne trading company, which just wants to make a shitload of money, but it's later revealed that the adopted son of the local leader is [[BatmanGambit just using them]] for his [[GodhoodSeeker much grander scheme]].
** It is worth noting that (being a ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' game set in the TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms) the Iron Throne is invoked as being a largely LawfulEvil organization in-universe.

* In ''VideoGame/BatmanTheTelltaleSeries'' it's revealed that [[spoiler:Bruce's father Thomas Wayne]] had ties with the mafia and the [[CorruptPolitician corrupt mayor]], and amassed wealth by drugging and gaslighting other rich people [[spoiler: (including the Penguin's mother)]] and committing them to Arkham Asylum in order to steal their land and money.
* ''VideoGame/BioShock1''. The game does quite a bit to {{Deconstruct|ion}} the idea of the Objectivist writings of Creator/AynRand by showing the player an anarcho-capitalist dystopian hidden city pretty much filled with these guys. [[{{Sadist}} Frank Fontaine]] and [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Augustus Sinclair]] stand out.

* Handsome Jack, the main villain of ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'', is CEO of the Hyperion corporation and to put it lightly, an egotistical maniac who declares practically everyone on Pandora a bandit (even those who aren't actually bandits) and a despot who is pointlessly cruel to everyone [[ForTheEvulz for kicks and giggles]].
* ''Videogame/Borderlands3'' continues the tradition of psychotic [=CEOs=] with Katagawa Jr, heir to the Maliwan corporation who has allied with the [[{{Cult}} Children of the Vault]] as part of his war with the Atlas corporation led by [[Videogame/TalesFromTheBorderlands Rhys]] (one of the rare exceptions in this setting) borne out of what is implied to be a twisted crush. He became the company heir by killing off all other siblings next in line to inherit the company and is portrayed as a shallow and murderous yuppie.

* Following in the footsteps of [[TabletopGame/Cyberpunk2020 its tabletop counterpart]], ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' has this as the default approach of just about every corporate executive in the game. To the corporations, the pursuit of profit justifies murder, torture, brainwashing, terrorism, kidnapping, [[RefugeInAudacity and any sick, twisted fantasy that happens to serve the bottom line]]. Of course, [[YouHaveFailedMe given that the consequences for failure are grim for aspiring corporate executives]], it's not difficult to understand why those who reach the top learn to value results over morality.
* Subverted by the titular corporation in ''VideoGame/DeepRockGalactic''. Their recruitment pitch says they'd rather send a crack 4-man squad rather than sending a veritable army, they make it clear that most of the times, their hardware is more precious than their employees, and getting a promotion means ''paying the company'' for the privilege. But they never lie or obfuscate all these, and the Dwarves they employ don't have any issue with it, and MissionControl will support the team on the ground as best as he could. All in all, it may be that the company and Dwarves in general [[BlueAndOrangeMorality just have a different mindset than human.]]
* Elijah Kamski from ''VideoGame/DetroitBecomeHuman'' is an AmbiguouslyEvil, IdleRich TechBro who invented the RidiculouslyHumanRobots driving the game's plot and is disinterested in both the future of humanity and the future of android rights, living as a recluse in his BigFancyHouse watching the CrapsaccharineWorld he created from afar. [[spoiler:It's implied that he's secretly responsible for the [[RobotWar android uprising]], given that he personally designed Markus, is aware of Jericho's location, and even gives Connor the means to overcome his attempted reprogramming by Cyberlife if he goes deviant. Purely [[BlueAndOrangeMorality for the sake of scientific curiosity]].]]
* Bob Page is ''VideoGame/DeusEx'''s Corrupt Corporate Executive VillainWithGoodPublicity, taking [[RefugeInAudacity refuge in the unlikelihood of anyone digging]] [[AGodAmI deeper]].

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' give several examples:

* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'':
** Alice [=McLafferty=], head of the Crimson Caravan Company. She recruits the player to steal the Gun Runners' manufacturing specifications and [[spoiler:is secretly working with the Van Graff crime family to slaughter competitors' caravans, sabotaging their main competitors the Gun Runners in return.]]
** It's implied that Festus, Sunset Sarsaparilla Company's robot mascot, was programmed by, or on the orders of, someone very much like this. The company was legally required to include in his interface a "silly ol' advisory" about the health risks of drinking their product too much, but [[ObfuscatingDisability his hearing always suddenly gets suspiciously spotty]] anytime you start asking him questions about it. Assuming the player doesn't just give up in frustration first, the conveniently tin-eared Festus has to be queried for the advisory ''three times in a row'' before he finally spills the beans. Yeesh.
** Robert House plays around with this. While he wasn't as blatantly cartoonishly evil as other Pre-War corpos he was certainly ruthless in business dealings in how he bought out the businesses of Vegas as his way of payback against his brother for cheating him out of the family business. As the self-declared CEO and autocrat of New Vegas, he's mostly fair in how he lets his underlings deal with things themselves but can be rather brutal in regards to punishing anyone whom he deems a threat to his power, ranging from justified (The Brotherhood of Steel) to very questionable (the Kings if they cooperate with the NCR).
* As revealed in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', John-Caleb Bradberton ran the Nuka-Cola Corporation this way. Rather than waste money on superior advertising campaigns and Research & Development to uphold their dominance over the market, they simply forced other soft drink companies into bankruptcy, stole their recipes, and rebranded those recipes as new types of Nuka-Cola. They were more than willing to use terrorist actions, including sabotaging advertising campaigns, mugging employees, stealing supplies, damaging machinery and even launch full-scale attacks on soda plants! The Far Harbor DLC contains a "Cola Wars" storyline you can follow by exploring the Vim Soda Pop factory, which reveals how Vim was under attack by Nuka-Cola saboteurs before the bombs dropped, and the Nuka-World DLC contains terminals confirming that almost every alternate flavor of Nuka-Cola is actually a rebranded, stolen recipe from some other company that Nuka-Cola put out of business. Not to mention the AmusementParkOfDoom he built that occasionally killed people due to him cutting corners for the sake of focusing on making weapons for the US government in exchange for them making him immortal.
* The Shinra Electric Power Company in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''[[note]]with the exception of Reeve[[/note]]. Shinra's main industry in the game seems more "World Domination" than "Electric Power". Or "Weapons Manufacturer" before even that.
** [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake This gets amped in the remake]], [[MurderByInaction as Shinra has intentionally allowed the Avalanche cells to wreak havoc]], [[FalseFlagOperation so they could blame Avalanche's non-existent Wutai patrons]] [[WarForFunAndProfit and declare another war]]. They also intend to ''abandon'' Midgar and its population entirely, since their pollution and unethical experiments have turned their "City of Tomorrow" into a monster-infested hellhole.

* Adrian Ripburger in adventure game ''VideoGame/FullThrottle'' is another example of a villainous ''vice''-exec with a [[CoolOldGuy benign]] [[UnclePennybags superior]]. Since he murders said superior and takes his place relatively early in the game, however, the distinction is probably moot.

* The Glukkons in the ''VideoGame/{{Oddworld}}'' game series are similar to ''VideoGame/StarControlII''[='s=] Druuge -- a species of out-of-control capitalists. Their lives revolve around harvesting the animals on their planet, processing them, and selling them as snack food. By the time of the first game, ''Abe's Oddyssee'', they've driven one race into extinction (the Meeches) and the others are rare. Thus, they turn on their slave race, the Mudokons, and [[ImAHumanitarian attempt to turn them into their next product]]. In the second game, ''Abe's Exoddus'', they've taken to making a soft drink from Mudokon ''bones and tears''.

* ''VideoGame/Portal2'': Aperture Science CEO Cave Johnson [[PosthumousCharacter apparently fits]] this to a T, especially in his later years when he had to resort to putting his own employees through tests, though he stands out mostly for being a CloudCuckoolander and [[CrazyIsCool Crazy Cool]].

* Chairman Drek, the BigBad of ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank'', had a far-reaching, [[PlanetLooters planet-looting]] scheme for making endless profits, the thwarting of which was Clank's sole motivation throughout the first game.
** And then there's Gleeman Vox from ''VideoGame/RatchetDeadlocked'', who hosts a MerchandiseDriven intergalactic TV event called [=DreadZone=], where captured heroes are forced to fight to the death.

* The Umbrella Corporation in ''Franchise/ResidentEvil''. Notably, when the government finally had evidence of Umbrella's misdeeds in the TimeSkip before ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'', they destroyed the company by freezing their business practices, crashing their stock price and driving them into bankruptcy -- [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome it doesn't matter how powerful a corporation you are, if you can't do business, you die]].
** And [[spoiler:the shadowy Other Corporation Albert Wesker works for. And the Raccoon City Police Department. And most of the S.T.A.R.S management. And really any organization in the ''Resident Evil'' games.]]

* The recent "King of the Dwarves" quest of ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' has the dwarves think the Consortium is this. The ultimate reason for that is the death of two miners in a cave-in, [[spoiler:as the Consortium's forces, the Black Guard, was too busy saving the machines damaged in the same terrorism-based explosion to help them.]] The trope isn't played straight -- [[spoiler:the decision was necessary to avoid further disasters caused by the city's power supply being destroyed.]] This doesn't help with preventing all the civil unrest.
* ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2'' and ''VideoGame/RedFaction'' had the Ultor corporation. Doing anything to earn a buck off Stillwater's middle and wealthy classes, they will not hesitate to exploit workers, start gang wars and bring in heavily armed men to protect investments.
* ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' video games:

* The Morganites of ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' operate as a collective of businesses under their leader who is, by default, titled [=CEO=]. While not instrinsically evil like the Korx, the faction ''can'' be played as amorally as you, the [=CEO=], desire.
** Technically Morgan got aboard the ''Unity'' illegally, having his people install a secret [[HumanPopsicle cryo-pod]] on the ship. He justifies it by saying that, as a major contributor into the construction of the ''Unity'', he, technically, owns part of it.

* The Druuge from ''VideoGame/StarControlII'' are a whole PlanetOfHats of Corrupt Corporate Executives. Marriages are entirely based on contracts, and any offspring who reach maturity are forced to pay a percentage of their income to their parents. Every member of the race works for the Crimson Corporation, which owns ''everything'' on all Druuge-occupied planets, including air. Thus, anyone who is laid off from the Crimson Corporation is accused of poaching company property, and either executed or sent to be used as crew/[[PoweredByAForsakenChild emergency fuel]] on a Mauler-class spaceship. All the while, the Druuge are trying to stab each other (and other races) in the back and claw their way to the top of the corporate pyramid.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': ''Videogame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' has [[EvilInc Czerka]]. Two planets' worth of slavery, genocide, environmental damage, and other shady practices. A light-side PlayerCharacter can scam them mercilessly and get away with it. In the sequel, they're at it again, trying to screw over Telos, getting cozy with the Exchange (mobsters), and the local rep overrunning the place with mercenaries and paid thugs to subvert the Telosian Security Force.
** Bites them hard in the ass come ''Videogame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' where IronLady Republic Chancellor Saresh has had enough of their flagrant disrespect for the law and orders their assets seized for crimes against the Republic. [[PlayerCharacter Players]] are part of the cleanup crew on the Republic side, but the Empire wants to swoop in and grab whatever they can before the Republic makes off with the company assets.
* Mitsuko Isurugi from ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars Original Generation 2'' is able to plan with all sides except for the Einst, simply because all sides know that she will only look out for herself, and wants the war to continue so she can profit off of it. The only reason she doesn't work for the Einst is because they're {{Eldritch Abomination}}s and she can't make money off of them.

** And in the 2012 Reboot, Jack Denham.
* ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' has Edward Diego who was performing illegal biological experiments on Citadel Station. When Tri-Optimum workers were getting suspicious they sent men to arrest him and he blew them up with the station's defenses. He later becomes a servant to SHODAN and the hacker has to fight him. Before that however, he gave the hacker an ultimatum to change SHODAN's programming in order to get a military grade implant and be set free.
** Similarly, in ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'', the Von Braun would not be such a death trap and [[TheVirus the Many]] would have remained ineffectually stuck on some chunk of space-debris were it not for a few Tri-Optimum executives.

* In ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'', Geldegarde Monotoli ran the show in Fourside, and it was hinted he made a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with Giygas]] to gain so much power, and before that was a nameless employee in a large company. Many citizens complained the abuse of his power ruined their lives. Once the player defeats the Mani Mani Statue and cuts off Monotoli's connection to Giyagas he apologizes for his actions, explaining that his behavior was due to the statute's influence. In the postgame you can find he happily went back to his old job as an elevator operator.

* In ''VideoGame/MasterDetectiveArchivesRainCode'', the CEO of Amaterasu Corporation, [[spoiler:Makoto Kagutsuchi]], depicts himself as a welcoming, friendly person who is willing to help others, presenting an affable demeanor. [[spoiler:Or so it seems. Though Makoto's AffablyEvil self isn't fake, in reality, he's the story's BigBad and a highly unscrupulous [[WellIntentionedExtremist extremist]], moonlighting as a serial kidnapper and enforcing cannibalism on Kanai Ward's homunculus residents so they can be sustained, all while keeping them in the dark about the fact they're not human, and as part of his plot to provide for them through unethical means, he assembles Master Detectives in Kanai Ward so they can oppose his rival, Yomi, and Makoto can personally overthrow him from his position as director of the Amaterasu Corporation Peacekeepers in his even ''deeper'' plot to KillAndReplace his detective rival, Number One, leader of the WDO, as the CEO is a clone of Number One, and as part of that plot, he intends to further abuse his authority by leading any further outsiders ''away'' from Kanai Ward so its secret can be kept.]]

* ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'': Gruntilda the Witch owns Grunty Industries (a pollution-spewing underwear factory in the middle of a wasteland), [=WitchyWorld=] (a rundown ThemePark with unsafe rides[[note]]the level is a reference to Ride/ActionPark, which was notorious in the 1980s for its poor safety record and underaged employees who were drunk while on the job. Not helping matters were rowdy patrons and an indifferent management. Eventually, it was closed down due to several personal injury suits in 1996. When Action Park was revitalized under new management in 1998, they took safety ''very'' seriously[[/note]]), Clanker's Cavern (a garbage dump with a cyborgized whale that acts as a trash compactor), and the HMS ''Rusty Bucket'' (a large cargo ship in an extremely polluted industrial harbor). All of them operate under NoOSHACompliance, implying that Grunty's a scrooge when it comes to safety features. They also have deranged employees who will attack anyone on sight.

* Heihachi and Kazuya Mishima from the ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' series probably count. Jinpachi was a benevolent CEO, but Heihachi quickly corrupted it, and Kazuya was even worse (e.g. smuggling endangered animals, which brought Jun Kazama into the picture).

** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' introduced Donald Love, a real estate mogul who owns much of Liberty City and is currently involved in an illegal exchange of [[BriefcaseFullOfMoney a mysterious parcel]]. He works closely with the Columbian Cartel but isn't above wiping them out if they try to blackmail him (or if their deaths will assist in slum clearance...). In a slight inversion of this, he is the highest-paying and most reliable gang "boss" the game offers, and the only one who doesn't betray you by the end. In the prequel ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoLibertyCityStories Liberty City Stories]]'', he is reimagined as a comic relief nitwit, though with a much higher body count: This time he is an ally of the Leone crime family, running as their Mayoral candidate after having the previous incumbent shot. Despite a colorful election season -- involving blown-up election vans, torched ballot machines, and Uzi-packing student organizers -- he still loses the race and goes bankrupt. Donald later turns up in a flophouse with a [[BeardOfSorrow scraggly beard]]; upon discovering Avery Carrington's development plans for Fort Staunton, he directs you to plant explosives under Fort Staunton, demolishing the entire district and allowing him to spearhead the development project seen in ''[=GTAIII=]''.

** It's implied that Festus, Sunset Sarsaparilla Company's robot mascot, was programmed by, or on the orders of, someone very much like this. The company was legally required to include in his interface a "silly ol' advisory" about the health risks of drinking their product too much, but his hearing always suddenly gets suspiciously spotty anytime you start asking him questions about it. Assuming the player doesn't just give up in frustration first, the conveniently tin-eared Festus has to be queried for the advisory ''three times in a row'' before he finally spills the beans. Yeesh.

* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has Alice [=McLafferty=], head of the Crimson Caravan Company. She recruits the player to steal the Gun Runners' manufacturing specifications and [[spoiler:is secretly working with the Van Graff crime family to slaughter competitors' caravans, sabotaging their main competitors the Gun Runners in return.]]

* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'': Fazbear Entertainment makes so many bizarre decisions that you'll end up wondering if they're actually evil [[HanlonsRazor or just]] [[IncompetenceInc woefully idiotic]] (the game never outright says which). Here are their "wonderful" decisions:

** Then [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSisterLocation Sister Location]] drops a bombshell with the reveal that [[spoiler:the SerialKiller (named [[BigBad William Afton]]) was a C.E.O. of a robotics company himself before co-founding Fazbear Entertainment, and built the Funtime animatronics to kidnap/murder children.]]

** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' introduced Donald Love, a real estate/media kingpin who owns much of Liberty City and is currently involved in an illegal exchange of [[BriefcaseFullOfMoney a mysterious parcel]]. He works closely with the Columbian Cartel but isn't above wiping them out if they try to blackmail him (or if their deaths will assist in slum clearance...). In a slight inversion of this, he is the highest-paying and most reliable gang "boss" the game offers, and the only one who doesn't betray you by the end. In the prequel ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoLibertyCityStories Liberty City Stories]]'', he is reimagined as a comic relief nitwit, though with a much higher body count: This time he is an ally of the Leone crime family, running as their Mayoral candidate after having the previous incumbent shot. Despite a colorful election season -- involving blown-up election vans, torched ballot machines, and Uzi-packing student organizers -- he still loses the race and goes bankrupt. Donald later turns up in a flophouse with a [[BeardOfSorrow scraggly beard]]; upon discovering Avery Carrington's development plans for Fort Staunton, he directs you to plant explosives under Fort Staunton, demolishing the entire district and allowing him to spearhead the development project seen in ''[=GTAIII=]''.

* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'''s BigBad is Nicole Horne, head of the Aesir Corporation, a member of the [[AncientConspiracy Inner Circle]], the twisted mind behind the nightmare drug Valkyr, and the one behind the murder of the title character's wife and baby girl.

* In ''VideoGame/LoveAndPies'', Sebastian Corps, CEO of Global {{Megacorp}}, is described by the Windmill Café patrons as a ruthless businessman. He doesn't care how he runs the company as long as he makes a profit, and he tries to manipulate the employees who resigned into returning to work for him. [[spoiler:When he offers Amelia "lessons" on how to run Windmill Café, he tries indoctrinating the rules he has for Clean Bean Café such as requiring payment from outside help such as Sven and changing the café's marketing strategy without Amelia's input. He then offers her to sign the documents to make Windmill Café part of the Global Megacorp brand.]]

* As revealed in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'', John-Caleb Bradberton ran the Nuka-Cola Corporation this way. Rather than waste money on superior advertising campaigns and Research & Development to uphold their dominance over the market, they simply forced other soft drink companies into bankruptcy, stole their recipes, and rebranded those recipes as new types of Nuka-Cola. They were more than willing to use terrorist actions, including sabotaging advertising campaigns, mugging employees, stealing supplies, damaging machinery and even launch full-scale attacks on soda plants! The Far Harbor DLC contains a "Cola Wars" storyline you can follow by exploring the Vim Soda Pop factory, which reveals how Vim was under attack by Nuka-Cola saboteurs before the bombs dropped, and the Nuka-World DLC contains terminals confirming that almost every alternate flavor of Nuka-Cola is actually a rebranded, stolen recipe from some other company that Nuka-Cola put out of business. Not to mention the AmusementParkOfDoom he built that occasionally killed people due to him cutting corners for the sake of focusing on making weapons for the US government in exchange for them making him immortal.

%%* A large number of characters in the ''{{VideoGame/Hitman}}'' series are Corrupt Corporate Executives. Special mention goes to Blake Dexter from ''[[VideoGame/HitmanAbsolution Absolution]]''.

* ''[[VideoGame/JourneyToTheSavagePlanet Journey to the Savage Planet]]'' has Martin Tweed, the CEO of Kindred Aerospace, who is so corrupt that his indoctrinated AI have to be periodically reformatted to prevent them from revealing how big of an asshole he really is. And if that weren't enough, his company ''deliberately'' polluted Earth to force humanity offworld and has sent thousands of amateur tourists on glorified suicide missions.

** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' introduced Donald Love, a real estate/media kingpin who owns much of Liberty City and is currently involved in an illegal exchange of [[BriefcaseFullOfMoney a mysterious parcel]]. He works closely with the Columbian Cartel but isn't above wiping them out if they try to blackmail him (or if their deaths will assist in slum clearance...). In a slight inversion of this, he is the highest-paying and most reliable gang "boss" the game offers, and the only one who doesn't betray you by the end. In the prequel ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoLibertyCityStories Liberty City Stories]]'', he is reimagined as a comic relief nitwit, though with a much higher body count: This time he is an ally of the Leone crime family, running as their Mayoral candidate after having the previous incumbent shot. Despite a colorful election season -- involving blown-up election vans, torched ballot machines, and Uzi-packing student organizers -- he still loses the race and goes bankrupt. Donald later turns up in a flophouse with a [[BeardOfSorrow scraggly beard]]; upon discovering Avery Carrington's development plans for Fort Staunton, he directs you to plant explosives under Little Italy, demolishing the entire district and allowing him to spearhead the development project seen in ''[=GTAIII=]''.

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': ''Videogame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' has [EvilInc Czerka]]. Two planets' worth of slavery, genocide, environmental damage, and other shady practices. A light-side PlayerCharacter can scam them mercilessly and get away with it. In the sequel, they're at it again, trying to screw over Telos, getting cozy with the Exchange (mobsters), and the local rep overrunning the place with mercenaries and paid thugs to subvert the Telosian Security Force.

** Avery Carrington from ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'', also a CorruptHick. He's not an antagonist though, being this a criminal simulator [[GreyAndGrayMorality with allies and rivals rather than good and evil]].

* ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'': Gruntilda the Witch owns Grunty Industries (a pollution-spewing underwear factory in the middle of a wasteland), [=WitchyWorld=] (a rundown ThemePark with unsafe rides[[note]]the level is a reference to Ride/ActionPark, which was notorious in the 1980s for its poor safety record and underaged employees who were drunk while on the job. Not helping matters were rowdy patrons and an indifferent management. Eventually, it was closed down due to several personal injury suits in 1996. When it was revitalized under new management in 1998, the new owners took safety ''very'' seriously to avoid future mishaps[[/note]]), Clanker's Cavern (a garbage dump with a cyborgized whale that acts as a trash compactor), and the HMS ''Rusty Bucket'' (a large cargo ship in an extremely polluted industrial harbor). All of them operate under NoOSHACompliance, implying that Grunty's a scrooge when it comes to safety features. They also have deranged employees who will attack anyone on sight.

* Arius of ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 2'' , who seeks and wields demonic power for world domination while publicly the head of the international Uroboros corporation.