A group of US Army soldiers-turned-terrorists was partly inspired by Ubisoft's upcoming Rainbow 6 Patriots, according to the prosecution in the murder case against the self-styled militia.
A group of US Army soldiers-turned-terrorists was partly inspired by Ubisoft's upcoming Rainbow 6 Patriots, according to the prosecution in the murder case against members of the self-styled militia.
The group, which calls itself "Forever Enduring Always Ready" (FEAR), consists of current and inactive soldiers from the US Army post in Fort Stewart, Georgia. Prosecutors say that FEAR's leader, Pvt. Isaac Aguigui, used a magazine article on Rainbow 6 Patriots to recruit soldiers to his cause. "Aguigui called this process 'the awakening,' and if those approached were in agreement with the concept, they would be brought into the fold of the organization," said Long County, Georgia, assistant district attorney Isabel Pauley.
Rainbow 6 Patriots is in development at Ubisoft Montreal and is scheduled for release in 2013. Ubisoft has released two video clips of concept footage for the game. In one of them, terrorists kidnap a man's family and strap a bomb to him, then instruct him to walk to Times Square lest they kill his family. Instead, Team Rainbow intercepts the would-be suicide bomber on the Brooklyn Bridge, and throws him off it into the East River when it is determined that the explosives cannot be disarmed.
Rainbow 6 Patriots did not appear at E3 2012; Laurent Detoc, executive director for Ubisoft in North America, told Polygon, "We'll be [showing] Rainbow 6 when we think it's a better time to bring it."
Three members of FEAR — Aguigui, Pvt. Christopher Salmon, and Sgt. Anthony Peden — have been charged with the December 4th, 2011, murder of former soldier Michael Roark, 19, and his 17-year-old girlfriend, Tiffany York.
A fourth, Pfc. Michael Burnett, agreed to a plea deal, testifying against his co-conspirators in exchange for pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and illegal gang activity. According to Burnett, the soldiers killed the couple because they believed that the two had betrayed their plots. The soldiers have been charged in Georgia district court with malice murder, felony murder, criminal gang activity, aggravated assault, and using a firearm while committing a felony.
According to the prosecution, FEAR spent $87,000 on stockpiling weapons, explosives, and ammunition, and was planning a variety of terrorist acts on American soil: taking over Fort Stewart; bombing the Forsyth Park fountain in Savannah, Georgia; bombing a dam in Washington state and poisoning its apple crop; and ultimately, killing the president and overthrowing the American government.
We've reached out to Ubisoft for comment, and will update this article with any information we receive.