Actuality examine: Microsoft, David Bowie, Invoice Gates, and a creepy online game referred to as ‘Omikron’

Yes, there was a game called Omikron: The Nomad Soul, starring a virtual David Bowie, released in 1999 for Microsoft Windows.

No, the game was not made by Microsoft. Suggesting that Bill Gates had anything to do with it is like calling Apple CEO Tim Cook the mastermind behind Facebook because the social network runs on iPhone.

Call me a puppet if you will, but it’s yet another off-the-mark COVID-19 conspiracy theory involving the Microsoft co-founder.

The adventure game, made by French developer Quantic Dream and published by Edios Interactive (now Square Enix), is getting lots of attention this week due to the rise of the Omicron variant, as you might imagine.

Fueling the conspiracy theories are the game’s underlying themes and anti-government plot, as illustrated by Bowie’s character in this Omikron clip.

“Wake up, people of Omikron,” Bowie’s character says, warning that they’re being turned into government puppets. “Join the awakened ones, and rise up to fight for your freedom. Together we can win.”

If you haven’t encountered a Quantic Dream title before, games journalist Thomas Wilde explains that the studio “went on to make some of the weirder games of the next few generations: Indigo Prophecy, Heavy Rain, Detroit: Become Human.” The studio “loves narrative, nudity, and frankly, incredible pretension,” he notes.

Omikron: The Nomad Soul came out for Dreamcast a year after its Windows debut.

As luck would have it, Omikron is available to this day on Steam. As part of my due diligence, I bought the game this morning, and I’m playing it now. Maybe I should schedule a COVID test for later today, just in case.