Although it’s more than a decade old, the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops II takes place in the year 2025 and some players are now saying the game’s storyline has slowly come to life.
The 2012 hit game places players in a fictional Second Cold War where China and the US are locked in trade battle and the former cuts America off from rare earth minerals.
Sound familiar?
Within the plot of the game, the global conflict started after China suffered a cyber attack that tanked the country’s stock market, causing the communist country to cut off American access to the rare minerals.
Some gamers have pointed out how eerily reminiscent it is of the current tariff war between the Trump Administration and the rest of the world, especially China, against which the US president threatened 145 percent tariffs.
Not to mention in early April, China actually placed export restrictions on rare earth elements in response to Trump’s tariffs.
As a result, China, which produces around 90 percent of the world’s rare minerals, squeezed their supply to the West, which uses them to make weapons, electronics and other goods.
The video game’s main antagonist, Raul Menendez, is also a businessman, like Donald Trump, although Menendez never rises to the rank of US president.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II takes place in 2025 and some players believe the game’s storyline is coming true. The 2012 game puts players into a fictional Second Cold War where China and the US are locked in trade battle and the former cuts America off from rare earth minerals
Some are saying it is reminiscent of the current tariff war between the Trump Administration and the rest of the world , especially China where the US president threatened 145 percent tariffs. In early April, China placed export restrictions on rare earth elements in response to tariffs
Menendez’s character is a drug-trafficker-turned-terrorist, who is an international businessman who has a large cult-like following.
The terrorist, who feels the world has wronged him, also faked his own death in the game.
Although Trump did not fake his own death players pointed out that he did have a near-death experience in Butler, Pennsylvania, while on the campaign trial.
Would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks clipped Trump’s ear with a bullet on July 13 last year at a rally.
One of the differences between the game and real American life is that the fictional world has a female president.
The US was close to having a female president in 2025, but Kamala Harris lost to Trump in the 2024 election.
The game was developed with future warfare expert Peter Singer and retired Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, according to Canadian influencer Doug Sharpe.
When it was released 13 years ago, many thought the science fiction game could help shape actual warfare.
The main antagonist, Raul Menendez, is also a businessman, like Donald Trump, although he never rises to the rank of US president
Menendez also faked his own death in the game, according to Military.com. Although Trump has not faked his own death, he did have a near death experience in Butler, Pennsylvania
In a 2012 NBC report, Singer said: ‘It’s a weird way to say this, but the experience of working on the fictional game was definitely an aid to my non-fictional work.
‘It serves as an inspiration for the real world and also sets the expectations for the future.’
The game had resemblances with exercises run by the US military, NBC reported.
Singer told CNN in 2012 that he helped the game’s developers identify trends that could become real.
‘We focused on everything from technical trends, the emergence of robotics, some of the greater attention to warfare, and then also political trends,’ he told the outlet. ‘The potential emergence of a proto-Cold War between the [United States] and China.’
Singer also suggested at the time that a cold war breaking out over rare earth minerals wouldn’t be too far-fetched.
‘I better not walk outside and see a damn drone,’ one person commented under Sharpe’s post.
The game was developed with future warfare expert Peter Singer (left) and retired Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North (right). When it was released 13 years ago, many thought the science fiction game could help shape actual warfare.
‘Imma replay the game, just in case,’ a fan said now
The birds were unveiled by China in August last year during the founding anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army
In the game, drones are launched against US cities. Recently, China announced it had bird drones – devices that realistically look like the animal.
The birds were unveiled by China in August last year during the founding anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army, the biomimetic drone looks like a Eurasian tree sparrow and is believed to be an ornithopter.
The similarities were also likened to the TV show The Simpsons that is known for supposedly making predictions of things that have then come true.
‘”Simpsons predicted it” was way more jolly than “CoD predicted it,”‘ another commenter wrote.
‘Imma replay the game, just in case,’ a third joked.