Mega Corp: Difference between revisions
Expanded and updated wikilinks
m (update links) |
(Expanded and updated wikilinks) |
||
(40 intermediate revisions by 10 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"Corporation, noun: An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. "''
|'''Ambrose Bierce'''}}
Speculative fiction, especially [[Dystopia
Perhaps there is one company that is a [[Privately-Owned Society]] in its own right. This goes beyond the definition of "monopoly."
Rarely are Mega Corporations portrayed with anything other than unremitting negativism; rather than being a simple business making things that people want to buy, they are almost invariably the villains of the setting, and depicted as exploitative, oppressive and [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|screwing the rules with their money]] while maintaining a [[Peace and Love Incorporated]] facade. They are home to the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]], [[Bad Boss]], [[Pointy-Haired Boss]], and [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]], and usually have [[Amoral Attorney
Mega Corporations are shown as being private institutions and therefore doesn't have to play by most rules the government has to, such as freedom of speech, because it's always "nobody is forcing you to work for them or buy from them or use their institutions or buy their products." However, more darker versions will also show these guys pretty much buying off or eliminating their competitors, brainwashing the masses, and coming up with [[Evil Plan
They may also [[Screw the Rules, I Make Them|be shown controlling the government either through having employees in important positions or through lobbying]], or taken to its extreme, may have [[Private Military Contractors]] or other [[Hired Guns]] (or even [[One Nation Under Copyright|an entire country or world]]) at their disposal, and become [[NGO Superpower|Superpowers]] in their own right.
A more benign version may be owned by a [[Rich Idiot With No Day Job]]. However, in [[Post Cyber Punk]] stories, some
Monopolies, Duopolies and Oligopolies (market structures which usually are home to several Mega Corp entities) ''do'' exist in real life, and indeed, very large multinational corporations do exist. And yes, ''some'' of these corporations do engage in unethical practices or political influence. Of course, it is an exaggeration (at least) to claim ''all'' [[There Are No Good Executives|corporations act in this way]].
{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* Toha Heavy Industries from both ''[[Blame]]'' and ''[[Biomega]]''.
* Capsule Corp. from ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' produces everything from houses to cars, and then puts them in a small portable (as in, pocket-sized) capsule. The Brief family is so rich that they build people space crafts for free. One of the few examples of a Mega Corp that's an unambiguously positive force in society. Eventually their product line is expanded to spaceships and even (in alternate universes) a time machine, but those aren't for sale and instead are just used by the Brief family and their personal friends (who happen to be the heroes of the story).
Line 30 ⟶ 29:
*** Diversification, yes. Good concept. Yet, I think the average 12-year-old would still be impressed with a company having leverage in every public company '''in the world'''. (Considering their Meganess, they may even have leverage in private companies.)
** Yiliaster from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's]]'' is even closer to this, considering they have so much technology and money that they can actually {{spoiler|manipulate the time stream.}}
** One rather interesting thing about the dub of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]!''. In the Japanese version, Alistair's grudge against Kaiba Corps was that they supplied the tanks that killed his brother. In the Dub? Kaiba Corps bought the land he (among many others including his family) were living on and were forcing them out with tanks. Sound like something you'd expect out of a Cyberpunk story?
*
* Daiwa Heavy Industries from ''Vexille'' succeed in {{spoiler|assuming complete control of Japan, eradicating most of its population and turning the survivors into cyborg drones. They also have plans to do the same on a worldwide scale.}}
* ''[[Death Note]]'': The Yotsuba Corporation. According to ''How to Read 13'', it is a massive international corporate conglomerate that employs over 300,000 people and is involved in everything from heavy industry to resort development to military weapons. It gets even more powerful when the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Yotsuba Group]] uses the [[Artifact of Doom|death note]] to kill off Yotsuba's rivals. [[The Guards Must Be Crazy|Their security is very lax though]] and {{spoiler|after Light kills the Yotsuba Group, the Megacorporation's stock plummets and the Yotsuba Corporation loses much of its influence.}}
Line 37 ⟶ 36:
** The stuff that happened in [[Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory|Operation Stardust]] wasn't actually their fault. And the profiteering mindset came about after [[Zeta Gundam|the Gryps Conflict]] as they actually threw in their lot with AEUG but were contractually bound to supply the Titans despite all the restrictions that were forced onto them.
** It also helped that the Moon, their main base of operation, was kind of a [[Recycled in Space|Space]] [[Switzerland]], and consistently remained neutral in the most conflicts around the Earth Sphere. Though real-life Switzerland rarely sells weapons larger than a handgun to foreign militaries.
** By the events of ''[[Crossbone Gundam]],'' set
** Anaheim does return back to prominence by the time of ''Victory Gundam.'' Especially when it's revealed that ''they're'' the true benefactors behind the League Militaire, reminiscent of the vital support they provided to the AEUG back in ''[[Zeta Gundam]]''.
* Myth Corp in ''Mythic Quest''
* ''Darkside Blues'' had the company Persona Century, which had bought over 90% of Earth's surace.
* Holy Nightmare Corporation/Nightmare Enterprises in ''[[Kirby:
== Comic Books ==
Line 54 ⟶ 53:
* The Marvel Universe counterpart to Wayne Enterprises is [[Iron Man|Stark Industries]].
** While their counterpart to LexCorp is [[Spider-Man|Oscorp]].
** The universe also features a few smaller megacorps, like the hero-run Rand Industries (Iron Fist) and Worthington Industries (Angel) and the villainous Oscorp (Norman Osborn).
* Marvel's ''2099'' titles had the world run by Mega Corps. How bad were things, you ask? The person that eventually overthrew their control and ushered in a fairer regime was none other than ''[[Doctor Doom]]''.
* [[Watchmen (comics)|Veidt Enterprises]], run by Adrian Veidt. Makes everything from hairspray to music television to tachyon particle emitters.
* ''[[The Authority]]'' once battled an interdimensional mega corporation.
* Armtech of ''[[Last Man Standing (graphic novel)|Last Man Standing]]'' controls all of [[Alternate Universe|Amerika]].
* Clay Industries in ''[[PS238]]'', which seems to sell all the materials needed to build the elaborate superhero bases, security systems and other useful pieces of equipment used by the school, many of the superheroes and {{spoiler|Praetorian Academy}}. They're also implied to sell 'instant-buildings', explaining how a universe so rich in superheroes manages to survive all the inevitable property damage. It seems to be a fairly benign company, as the founder and owner appears to be the school's janitor.
* The Zinco company, which serves as the [[Hellboy (comics)|Hellboy]] universe's rough Lexcorp equivalent. Was run by a pair of Nazi occultist supervillain fanboys until they both got themselves killed in separate attempts to defeat the BPRD and kick-start [[The End of the World as We Know It]].
* The Starship Corporation from [[Nintendo Power]]'s [[Star Fox (series)|Star
** Which may just be the reason said Big Bad orders his armies to [[Damsel in Distress|kidnap the daughter]] of the [[Benevolent Boss|Starship Magnate]].
== Fan
* [http://www.fanfiction.net/~mrevil Mr. Evil]'s ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3137871/1/Hero_High Hero] [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3875254/1/Hero_High_Earth_style High] [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4267279/1/Hero_High_Sphinx_Academy Series]'' has Sphinx Corp. Hinted at the end of the first, played
Line 73 ⟶ 72:
* [[James Cameron]] seems to love this trope.
** Cyberdyne from the ''[[Terminator]]'' films. While not exactly evil like Cameron's other Mega Corps, they're certainly unscrupulous to the point that they can convince the military to have all its defenses run by Skynet. Their high-tech invention ends up causing [[The End of the World as We Know It]] and the subsequent [[Robot War]].
** Weyland-Yutani, ''[[Alien]]'' franchise. Famously evil enough to sacrifice squads of colonial marines, entire colonies, and even the security of the Earth in its attempt to weaponize the eponymous alien critters...and in the fourth film eventually bought out by an even ''more'' evil rival, Wal-Mart. In this case though Cameron did not make the mega corp; it was already present and evil in the original ''Alien''; Cameron just fleshed it out.
** ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]'' brings us the Resources Development Administration, an interstellar mining and transportation firm which swings more meat than most countries.
* Omni Consumer Products, ''[[RoboCop]]'' is another iconic example: they have divisions in such diverse fields as consumer products, healthcare, prisons, space exploration, law enforcement to military grade weaponry and their ultimate goal is to turn Detroit into Delta City, [[One Nation Under Copyright|One City Under Copyright]].
* The driving conflict in ''[[Inception]]'' is the protagonists trying to stop of one of these from being created. It's stated that if the head of the corporation makes the decision to do so then the company will become the only empire in the world.
* ''[[Inspector Gadget]]'' has Scolex Industries, which produces technology such as robots and androids (such as the
* The Trade Federation in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' prequel trilogy is wealthy and influential enough to maintain its own navy (albeit one composed of converted cargo ships) and blockade entire planets at a whim, as well as have its own seat in the Galactic Senate. Yeah, they were rich enough to explicitly buy political power.
** The presence of fellow
*** It was until (explained in the [[Expanded Universe]]) the Galactic Empire outlawed military droids. Though this didn't stop many criminal and quasi-legal organizations from employing large forces of "security guard droids".
** Also from the [[Expanded Universe]], Kuat Drive Yards is the Empire's primary manufacturer of starships. It should be noted that this company is powerful enough to have a security fleet comprised mostly of Star Battlecruisers and Star Dreadnoughts that dwarf the Empire's iconic [[Carrier Battleship|Star Destroyers]], each of which is in turn, powerful enough to literally scare ''an entire star system'' into submission. Talk about overkill.
*** Granted, Kuat is under exclusive contract with the Empire, and is thus allowed to maintain said security force. In addition, the Empire has ''even more'' of said Star Dreadnoughts, the most famous of which is the ''Executor'', Vader's Super Star Destroyer. And also includes the Emperor's personal Super Star Destroyer, the ''Eclipse''...which has as its main armament a ''[[Wave Motion Gun|miniaturized Death Star Superlaser]]''. Which luckily was still under construction at the time of the movies.
** As with KDY, the Corellian Engineering Corpooration (CEC) enjoys its own ''huge security fleet'', though it is not involved purely in military contracts (which one could argue simply makes CEC all the more alarming). Its success has made it arguably the most prolific of the huge manufacturing supercorporations in the [[Expanded Universe]]. Oh, and they happen to jointly own a military subcontractor with Kuat, and purchased one of their Corellian rivals when a ''travel accident'' killed off the executive staff.
** Czerka Corp. in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' doesn't have its own navy, but it does own and enslave entire planets (Kashyyyk being one of them) and is utterly indifferent to the outcome of the Jedi Civil War.
*** They're also outside the law, pretty much. One of the loading screens in the game says that Companies like Czerka police themselves because they're too big for authorities to handle.
** The Corporate Sector Authority, first seen in the early Han Solo Adventure novels, owns an entire sector of space (the Corporate Sector), in which the Empire permits it to harvest and exploit resources with impunity. Strip-mine entire worlds? Enslave whole populations? Execute workers for conspiring to form labor unions? Check, Check, and Check. As long as they pay their tribute to the Emperor (which is much lower than what their taxes would be if they operated in the Empire proper), anything goes.
** The Offworld Mining Corporation in the [[Jedi Apprentice]] books.
** Adascorp in the Knights Of The Old Republic comic series, allied with Czerka Corp, also count.
* Buy N Large, from ''[[WALL-E]]'', a [[Brand X|barely-disguised]] scathing satire of Wal-Mart. It's so large that the CEO is literally President of the World - we even see the White House press room redone with the Buy N Large logo.
Line 101:
* In [[Mel Brooks]]'s ''[[Silent Movie (film)|Silent Movie]]'', Mel's little movie production company is in danger of getting stomped into a little greasy spot on the pavement by the ultra-gigantic Mega Corp studio Engulf & Devour.
* In the ''[[Tron]]'' franchise, the corporation known as ENCOM tends to display Mega Corp tendencies whenever it's not being controlled by idealists like founder Dr. Walter Gibbs or Kevin Flynn.
* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast| Apocalypse Inc]], the antagonists from all the movies in ''[[The Toxic Avenger]]'' series, and the short-lived animated adaptation. Yeah, they don't even try to hide it. Although they ''do'' try to hide the fact that [[Corrupt Corporate Executive| their CEO]] is [[The Devil]] himself.<ref>Although, the fictitious Apocalypse Inc was named after a ''real'' company of the same name, who produces video games.</ref>
== Literature ==
Line 107 ⟶ 108:
** {{spoiler|And the whole affair is a giant, ultimately disposable front. For the actual government that is supposedly ''its'' thinly veiled puppet. Talk about a [[Double Blind]]}}.
** Although Manpower is widespread and powerful, they are not alone in being a system spanning Mega corp. Kinder examples such as the Hauptman Cartel and Honor's own company. Not to mention the Mafia planets like Erewhon.
***Erewhon is a Mafia planet in the same way as England is a "bloodthirsty pirate country". That is, it's founders are Mafioso and it has traditions from that but it has become more civilized in it's outlook. Just like England is not ruled by Hengist and Horsa.
* The novel ''[[Oryx and Crake]]'' by Margaret Atwood features many of these, most of which are bio-corporations or health 'care' industries. The employees of these corporations live in secure compounds, seperated from the ordinary city, which they believe is dangerous and disease-riddled. These Megacorporations also have their own security corps, the Corpsecorps, which has replaced ordinary law enforcement and is a commercial and very corrupt company.
* ''Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles'' (CHOAM (roughly translated as "The Corporation of Honest Profit Traders")), [[Dune]]. They control all interstellar business in the Imperium except for star travel.
Line 114 ⟶ 116:
* ''Jennifer Government'' has two giant corporate alliances, US Alliance and Team Advantage, that cover the strongest and second strongest corporations of every trade, respectively. Any independent companies have long since gone bankrupt.
* The ''[[Thursday Next]]'' books have the Goliath Corporation, which produces everything "from cradles to coffins." They're also more or less the main villains of the series.
** Well, at least the executives of Goliath are. The [[Mook
* The [[
** And they all have commando-lawyer strike teams. Seriously.
* The concept is a heavily examined theme in Kim Stanley Robinson's ''[[Red Mars Trilogy]]'', where modern multinational corporations successively evolve into 'transnational corporations' (transnats) and then 'metanational corporations' (metanats, richer and powerful than most nations on earth) over the first two books before they effectively collapse in the face of a global catastrophe and worldwide uprisings near the end of the second book.
* Morning Star Cartel (a [[Meaningful Name]]) in ''A Game of Universe'' is a global corporation that became a interplanetary and then an interstellar corporation, thanks to the founder making A [[Deal with the Devil]].
* ''[[Podkayne
** In [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[Friday (novel)|Friday]]'', the Shipstone corporation owns, by the protagonist's own accounting, pretty much everything on
** The main plot of ''[[Magic, Inc.]]'' is about the eponymous corporation taking over all magical dealings first in the city, then the state and the entire US. {{spoiler|The heroes find out that it is a ''literal'' evil corporation when they discover that the founder and CEO is a high ranking demon from hell.}}
* Used and subverted with Event Horizon from the "Mindstar" sci-fi detective series by Peter F. Hamilton. Although mega corporations are more powerful than governments, the young and patriotic CEO Julia Evans keeps most of her industry in Britain to provide work and a strong economy, rather than subcontracting out to cheaper Pacific Rim countries. Of course, this also increases Event Horizon's power and influence within Britain. Hamilton's later novel "Fallen Dragon" reverts to the traditional trope with Earth dominated by five mega-corporations which wield almost unlimited power and increase their profits by using their [[Private Military Contractors|private army and spacefleet]] to [[Space Pirate|asset-strip the offworld colonies they helped establish]].
Line 127 ⟶ 129:
* J Corp in [[Tad Williams]]' ''[[Otherland]]'' is one of these. While not as large as some of the other examples (it has competitors), it's still big enough to own a private army, cofinance a project to build the world's most powerful computer network, and pretty much tell governments to piss off.
** Helps that in this version of the future corporations hold seats in the American government, with the number of seats being determined by shares of the market.
* The Syndicate Worlds from ''[[The Lost Fleet]]'' are an interstellar nation seemingly comprised of several Mega corps. Officers in the fleet are even referred to as CEOs.
* [[Philip K. Dick]] loved this trope:
** Trails of Hoffman Inc appeared in ''Lies Inc''. The company offered teleport services to a far-off world. It was a one way ticket, no way home. But the company definitely had its fingers in other pursuits, and whatever they were doing on Whale Mouth was not what they claimed.
Line 138 ⟶ 140:
* General Products from [[Larry Niven]]'s ''Known Space'' series is the most famous company in the known universe.
* The Bulero corporation in George Zebrowski's ''Macrolife''.
* Benevolent example: World Enterprises in ''[[The Man Who Fell to Earth]]'' starts with and specializes in electronics but quickly grows into this because its products are so innovative; it is actually able to launch a space program. The secret? The mysterious man at the top is actually an alien who brought his dying world's technology to Earth specifically to make enough money and obtain the resources needed to save the rest of his people, who will blend in with humanity as he has and positively influence it.
* INITEC (Interstellar Nanoatomic Independent Terran Empire Corporation) in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Virgin New Adventures]] novel ''Original Sin''. Its specialty is robotics, but it also produces weaponry (including the [[Weaksauce Weakness|glitterguns]] that [[Doctor Who/Recap/S12
* ''[[Crysis (series)|Crysis]]: Legion'' claims that Hargreave-Rasch is so big and powerful that even real-world giants like [[wikipedia:Monsanto|Monsanto]] and [[wikipedia:Halliburton|Halliburton]] are small fry compared to it.
** Uniquely enough (especially for a [[Peter Watts]] novel) is the fact that the entire corporation and its subsidiaries are secretly dedicated to one man's shadowed, {{spoiler|century-long struggle to prepare humanity against an imminent conflict with [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien
* In Andrey Livadny's ''[[The History of the Galaxy]]'', the Galactic Cybersystems Corpotation used to be the primary provider of all cybernetics (from household robots to infantry droids and [[Humongous Mecha]]) for most of the known worlds. However, they reached their limit, and the heads of the corporation were afraid of a crackdown if they attempt to step beyond the legal and ethical norms imposed by [[The Federation]]. They decide to lay low for awhile, letting their competition make these steps and then come back when the laws and ethical norms have changed. It didn't quite work out this way, and Galactic Cybersystems disappeared virtually overnight due to over-consolidation (all R&D and production was done on a single planet known only to a few). The corporation was powerful enough to have its own [[Humongous Mecha]] and a private fleet. Later novels have many smaller corporations that qualify as
* In ''[[The Unidentified]]'' by Rae Mariz, these corporations run schools. After the government ran out of money for schools, corporations bought old malls and turned them into schools, calling them "the Game". The schools are basically places for the teens to be marketed to and for them to test products.
* The Polisotechnic League from the [[Technic History]] is a benign example of a confederation of Megacorporations. The main cartel leader. Van Rjn would never call himself [[Insistent Terminology|benevolent]] because his(admittedly rather sloppy)righteousness is one of the few things he is humble about. He claims no more then that his greed is [[Pragmatic Villainy|practical]] and taking advantage of natives would be killing the goose that lays the golden egg, tolerating pirates would be bad for business, and coming to a decent settlement with his disaffected labor keeps him going, etc. [[Alternate Character Interpretation|arguably]] he is far more generous then he makes out but he credits himself only with a type of greed that is so pragmatic as to be benevolent by result.
== Live-Action TV ==
Line 157 ⟶ 159:
* ''[[Max Headroom]]'' placed the television networks, and Zik Zak, into this role.
* Massive Dynamic on the show ''[[Fringe]]''. When your slogan is "What do we do? What ''don't'' we do?" that should be a major hint to anyone
** In an unusual subversion, they're not particularly evil or corrupt, just ocasionally secretive. They usually cooperate with the FBI investigations and offer valuable resources for most cases, and their head, Nina Sharp, is a classic case of a [[Red Herring]] (in that she's ''never'' guilty of anything, and is usually just trying to help). There is, however, to consider the ''alarmingly'' high number of evil bioweapons, immoral experiments and [[Mad Scientist
* Vexcor in ''[[Charlie Jade]]'' is the largest and most prominent of the five Mega Corps that run the [[Dystopia
* Veridian Dynamics of ''[[Better Off Ted]]'' is at least almost there.
{{quote|
* Gracen & Gracen of ''[[Profit]]''.
*
* Captain Sheridan makes an offhand reference to "Disneyplanet" in ''[[Babylon 5]]'', implying that the Walt Disney Company is dabbling in planetary government by the 23rd century.
** Edgars Industries, "the biggest biochemical conglomerate on Mars." William Edgars specifically enlightens Garibaldi about the real power in the Alliance. One of the major reasons Clark is giving
{{quote|
* In ''[[Doug Anthony All Stars|DAAS Kapital]]'' the world was run by the corporation-government Shitsu Tonka, which has declared history officially over and all art dangerous.
* ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'', has the company that Barney works for, Altrucel. They are implied to make all sorts of weapons for war, but want people to remember they make the yellow fuzzy stuff on tennis balls. Altrucel later acquired an ailing Mega corp, the fictional Goliath National Bank.
Line 180 ⟶ 182:
* In ''[http://misspentyouthgame.com/ Misspent Youth]'' by Robert Bohl, you play bomb-throwing teenage anarchists in a Dystopia with an Authority that is out to personally destroy them. Groups who choose to play with a Corporate Authority frequently create evil megacorps.
* Hudson-Cosmos, Stahl, Phi, Trilex Pharmaceuticals and... too many others to name, in [[Cosmopol]]. Most people are not aware that Hudson-Cosmos and Stahl actually outright own ''almost all of the other companies'' and the ''entire cities'' that they are based in.
* Pentex, in the ''[[Old World of Darkness]]''. They're a front for the [[Eldritch Abomination|embodiment of entropy]] and its efforts to poison the entire universe. They have hands in everything from fast food to toys to pharmaceuticals to energy to
** The ''[[New World of Darkness]]'' has the Cheiron Group from ''[[Hunter: The Vigil]]'', a gigantic multinational organization that controls a dozen front businesses. One of those departments [[
* ''[[Warhammer
* ''[[Shadowrun]]'' has ten Mega corps that produce nearly all the goods and services one can find in 2070.
** Interesting in that real-world corporations such as Microsoft and Wal-Mart are included in the Shadowrun universe, but are decidedly inferior in size and influence compared to any several dozen other businesses.
Line 191 ⟶ 193:
*** Microsoft was almost killed overnight during the Crash but managed to hang on as the third tier cyberdeck software maker Microdeck (still run by the Gates family too); the third edition even made a plot hook out of them and possible ties to the Otaku. The company heir-to-be has been exploring the Matrix since his infancy. One story posted by a Shadowland runner says that he struck up a virtual relationship with her; for several weeks, he knew the exact right things to say, the right buttons to press to come across as her ideal man, etc., until she finally broached the idea of meeting in person. At that point, he abruptly ended the relationship and ceased contact. Pissed off at being played for a fool, she spent months tracking him down, eventually discovering that he was a pale, teenaged boy who had spent almost his entire life in the Matrix with absolutely no physical social experience. He had spent weeks studying everything about her on the Matrix and used that information to construct the persona of her perfect man, but panicked at the idea of speaking to her in person. Out of pity and/or disgust, she left him alive.
* Interstellar corporations in ''[[Traveller]]'', such as GSbAG, Hortalez et Cie, Sternmetal Horizons, Ling-Standard Products and SuSAG.
** ''Traveller''
* The Alternity game's ''[[Star*Drive]]'' setting. The following Stellar Nations, which controlled large regions of space, all fall under this category: Austrin-Ontis Unlimited, Insight, the Rigunmor Star Consortium, the Starmech Collective, and Voidcorp.
** Although not all to the same degree- Austrin-Ontis have gone so far into [[One Nation Under Copyright]] that they are more nation than copyright these days, whereas Voidcorp is all about Profit.
* In ''[[SLA Industries]]'', the eponymous Mega Corp effectively constitutes a state; its numerous subsidiaries (some big enough to be
* The Crysalis Corporation from ''[[Cthulhu Tech]]'', a game best described as an unholy lovechild of the [[H.P. Lovecraft|Cthulhu Mythos]] and [[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]. The corporation produces everything from household supplies to military hardware. In addition it secretly strives to dominate the world, supplying various cults and terrorist organisations and creating mutated creatures to fight for it. Furthermore, its CEO is actually an avatar of the god Nyarlatothep disguised as a mortal man. Talk about a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]!
*
** Elsewhere in D&D, the ''[[Mystara]]'' setting's Minrothad Guilds are an entire nation, made up of several islands, that's organized like a huge corporation. Each island, and each race that lives there, operates like a manufacturing division of the company, while the fully-incorporated "service guilds" are the equivalent of government departments (defense, etc).
* Hard-science RPG ''Blue Planet'' has several Mega Corporations that are states unto themselves called Incorporate States. Given that Earth itself is a [[Crapsack World]] in the Blue Planet universe, the Incorporate are very interested in the colony of Poseidon where the game is set.
* In ''[[Mutant Chronicles]]'', the big powers of the solar system are called "mega corps" and fit pretty well with this trope, but in a slight aversion they have by now evolved into [[Feudal Future]] noble houses of a sort. Exceptions are [[Eagle Land|Capitol]], which is still technically a corporation, and hence a democracy of sorts - you have one vote per piece of stock you own, and the company president serves basically the same role as an [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|American]] president. There's also Cybertronic which is focuses on creating electronics and cybernetics, it does have bits of an Orwellian society style.
* In ''[[Eclipse Phase]]'' the mega corps that were unable to adjust to a post-scarcity economy died out while those that could evolved into the Hypercorps. Most are small and decentralized, often existing wholly in [[Cyberspace]] ([[We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future|as labor is almost fully automated]]), but hold a great deal of influence in the Inner System. Mars is run wholesale by the Planetary Consortium, which poses as a republican democracy, but whose power is divided proportionally among the hypercorps who own shares in it. Venus used to be under Consortium rule until the habitats formed the Morningstar Constellation almost by accident.
* ''[[Exalted]]'' has a high fantasy example in The Guild, a vast trading concern that uses mercenaries and assassins to dispose of its rivals, is the world's biggest trader in narcotics and slaves, sells live humans by the thousands to the Fair Folk who devour their minds for food. And because that wasn't evil enough, they buy the emotionless unfeeling husks ''back'' from the Fair Folk so they can be resold as obedient manual labourers.
** The Guild also distributes medicine (when it's profitable), and by selling the soul-eating trickster fairies meals, they hold back a second Balorian Crusade...well, except the one time they nearly started it, but that was an accident.
* ''[[Cyberpunk 2020]]'', of course, with Arasaka and
== Theater ==
* ''[[Urinetown]]'': [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Urine Good Company]]
== Videogames ==
* Where do we start with ''[[Borderlands]]''? Let's see now, the one that's probably coming to your mind now is Atlas. They make powerful firearms, maintain a private army outfitted with said guns and other Atlas Artillery, and control most of Pandora, notably T-Bone Junction.
* The Caldari State from the ''[[
** All the other space-based corps are also mega corps of varying shadiness from "very" to "not much" and wield significant pull; a group of Gallente megas recently stood up against an attempted government takeover and succeeded.
* ''[[Ratchet & Clank (video game)|Ratchet
** Along with Gadgetron ([[Ratchet & Clank (video game)|Solana]] [[Ratchet and Clank Up Your Arsenal|Galaxy]]), Vox Industries ([[Ratchet: Deadlocked|Shadow Sector]]), and Grummel Net ([[Ratchet and Clank Future Tools of Destruction|Polaris]] [[Ratchet and Clank Future A Crack In Time|Galaxy]]). Slight subversion in that just about every game has at least ONE Mega Corp, but they're not necessarily the same Mega Corp - they just control different galaxies / portions of space thereof.
* Crey Corporation in ''[[City of Heroes]]''. One bit of dialogue says that they have products in 90% of Paragon City's homes. Indeed, they're so large, they're able to fund their own massive army of "security personnel." One thing that doesn't quite make sense, though, is how they were able to achieve this level of market saturation in what is suggested to be maybe a decade at the most (extreme corruption notwithstanding).
* Shinra in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', which produces electric power, military hardware, [[Green Rocks|Materia]], and automobiles, among other things. The heroes at first assume their "only" atrocities are deforesting, pollution, and other environmental crimes; they learn the stuff about unethical experiments, oppression, and malefic later. Even worse, when Sepiroth takes over, Shinra's goals turn towards global genocide.
* The Umbrella Corporation from ''[[Resident Evil]]''. Their front is a pharmaceutical company, but their business plan consists of "Let's inject this [[The Virus|zombie potion]] into an animal and [[Zombie Apocalypse|see what happens]]." while giving [[No OSHA Compliance|OSHA]] the finger.
** Notably, when the government finally had evidence of Umbrella's misdeeds in the [[Time Skip]] before ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'', they destroyed the company by freezing their business practices, crashing their stock price and driving them into bankruptcy.
Line 227 ⟶ 228:
** TLH also has Bingo! corporation and, in the sequel, WATIcorp.
* If GLaDOS is to be believed, Aperture Science from ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]''. The Aperture-branded cans of beans found in secluded places throughout the game would seem to support this theory.
** Also in the same 'verse; hardly anybody important in the Half-Life universe apart from Chell ''not'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20141006161610/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/10-The-Orange-Box worked for Black Mesa at some point?]
** One of the slides from a projector in a meeting room shows that Black Mesa clearly controls the market that they are competing for. It insinuated that Aperture Science has high goals but never actually delivers.
* The World Economic Consortium, bad guys in the ''[[Crusader: No Remorse|Crusader]]'' series, are ''the'' Mega
* EuroCorp of ''[[Syndicate]]'', one of a number of global mega-corporations powerful enough to control whole areas of the globe and maintain covert(ish) cyborg agents with no fear of law enforcement. EuroCorp are a minor player in this field at the start of the first game, but by the end [[Take Over the World|they own the entire world]], and in ''Syndicate Wars'' they've been ruling the world for some time.
* The Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) from the ''[[Doom]]'' series, whose experiments in teleportation technology were responsible for [[The Legions of Hell|all Hell literally breaking loose.]]
** By ''Doom 3'' one of their catch phrases is "The UAC is making safer worlds through [[Peace Through Superior Firepower|superior firepower]]."
* TriOptimum from ''[[System Shock]]'', where the "tri" stands for military/science/consumer... that's an evil combination in any <s>sci-fi</s> setting. Mega-corporations dominated the ''[[System Shock]]'' world in general and national governments were very weak, but the corporations were greatly undermined by the events of the game. The world population rose against the massive corporate corruption responsible for the Citadel Station scandal and reinstalled [[The Government]] as the Unified National Nominate to regulate what remains. By the time of the second game, TriOptimum was on its last financial legs before an employee invented a working [[Faster-Than-Light Travel|faster-than-light drive]]. In predictable corporate fashion, as many corners were cut from the ship built around the drive, to the point where the engines leaked constantly. Then the captain [[It Got Worse|brought some alien life forms on board]]. And you, a UNN soldier, [[It's Up to You|have to fix all of this]].
* The Guilds in ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'' are like this; but are actually one of the rare benign/benevolent versions, showing us that [[Tropes Are Tools]]. The various guilds appear to own their own land and cities, one of which rivals the capital city, but it's implied that Guild members aren't actually empire citizens, so they practically govern their own lands that don't fall inside the Empire's jurisdiction. Whenever they're in the empire it's typically to conduct business. The two factions rarely work together; but when they do, they literally build an ''entire town'' in only a matter of days. In a further subversion of the trope; the guilds are actually all headed by people who want profit, but actually aren't bad people with the exception of Barbos. Even Yeager, who is a minor antagonist who is implied to have ''two'' guilds under his thumb, has redeeming qualities, too.
** A small version of this trope is seen in ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'' with Chesedonia. Chesedonia is pretty much a neutral land that most people go to conduct business and trade in. Despite an apparent lack of government, they seem to do a pretty good job of handling themselves, it's implied that Astor, the richest man in the city, is able to run things when necessary. In this game; the Mega Corp actually is merely an implication and is more of a third-party, along with Daath.
* The various goblin cartels in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' are [[Dungeon Punk]] versions of the Mega Corp, offering all variety of arms, [[Applied Phlebotinum]], and services equally to all comers.
** The Steamwheedle cartel is the largest of the goblin cartels, and has a huge monopoly on goblin business.
*** Despite being the largest, they're actually a little more...benevolent than most Mega Corps often are; as they're often giving the players jobs and money. The only way they would be out to kill the player character is if they decide to join the Bloodsail Bucaneers or [[PvP]] inside the neutral zones. (Course, most of the people who did this were [[Griefer
** And then there's Venture Co, who are a much less morally ambiguous version of this trope. They're strip mining the mountains, polluting a few of the only oases in the Barrens, and, if you do the rogue quests, are developing a necromantic plague that will ensure its workers are efficient and compliant by turning them into zombies.
** The Cataclysm expansion introduces the neutral-turned-Horde aligned Bilgewater cartel (well, it was [[Its All There in the Manual|mentioned]] in one small blurb in an RPG book before), who are another rival corporation to the Steamwheedle cartel (even in foot<s>ball</s>bomb). They controlled the entirety (as far as what you can visit) of the goblins' home island of Kezan, which was covered in massive factories. After losing two zones to volcanoes, they industrialize and/or strip mine most of Azshara, and many other smaller locations (for the Horde, of course).
** The Crown Chemical Company (a [[Shout Out]] to Hallmark) may or may not be a splinter group of Undercity's Royal Apothecary Society. Whatever the case, this insideous group of mostly-undead alchemists show up during the [[Valentines Day Episode| Love is in the Air event]], planning to [[Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday| unleash a plague on Azeroth]] under the guise of harmless perfume and greeting card dealers. The Steamweedle cartel helps the players in bringing them down, although they're hardly any better, the [https://www.wowhead.com/item=49661/lovely-charm-collectors-kit equipment used]] to make ''their'' Valentine-related products [[Human Resources| rather... macabre.]]
** The Ashvane Trading Company is introduced in ''Battle for Azeroth''. Led by Lady Priscilla Ashvane - an [[Evil Chancellor]] manipulating Admiral Proudmore - they focus mostly on the production and distribution of [[Unobtainium|azerite]]-powered weapons and machinery. Secretly allied with both the naga and groups of pirates, the players quickly discover ''many'' atrocities committed at their facilities, including working employees to exhaustion, outright thuggery to keep employees in line, and even employing child labor.
* World Of Goo Corporation in, of course, ''[[World of Goo]]''. Their products are vague and their landfills are sinister.
* The Ultor Corporation from ''[[Saints Row]] 2'' and ''[[Red Faction]]''. It is also heavily implied that ''[[Saints Row]]'' is in the same timeline as ''[[Red Faction]]'' making the two Ultor Corporations one and the same.
* The Mishima Zaibatsu and the G Corporation from ''[[Tekken]]''.
* ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon|F.E.A.R.'s]]'' Armacham Technology Corporation is a company primarily focused on aerospace technology and weapons development. However, said weapons development programs include [[Cloning Blues|armies of cloned supersoldiers]] and [[Psychic Powers|telepathic commanders]], and ATC itself maintains a series of ''massive'' [[Elaborate Underground Base|underground bunkers]] and a [[Private Military Contractors|private army]] that could probably take over a medium-sized country if it felt like it. A company with the same name and logo appears in the video game ''[[Shogo: Mobile Armor Division]]''. It is also heavily implied that Shogo is in the same timeline as ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon|F.E.A.R.]]'' making the two Armacham Corporations one and the same.
** The third game in the series gives a good look at the scale that Armacham operates on. The first two levels take place in an unspecified Latin American country where ATC operates a huge private prison, and ATC mercenaries walk the streets of the city in full uniform with armored personnel carriers, attack helicopters, and heavily-armed robotic weapons platforms engaging in a running gun battle
* RED and BLU, the two mysterious organizations players in ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' work for, apparently each own one half of the world and are fronted by various companies, their main hubs being demolitions (RED) and construction (BLU). Further complicating the matter is the fact that the woman officiating the conflict [[War for Fun and Profit|not only owns and operates a weapons manufacturing corporation of her own]], but is also the CEO of both RED and BLU, ''[[NGO Superpower|putting her in control of every government on the planet.]]'' [[Its All There in the Manual|It's All There On The Official Website]].
* In ''[[Tachyon: The Fringe]]'' the mega corp GalSpan "The Galactic Spanning Corporation" does not have a monopoly on every product ever made, but it certainly eclipses the other companies featured. Those smaller ones make the parts of your ship. Galspan doesn't worry about such trivialities, despite maintaining it's own military fleet; they mine stars. For the main section of the campaign, they are one of your two options to take for exclusive employment as a contract pilot, and through morally dubious means, their game ending is {{spoiler|the only way your character can ever return back to Earth. Post-game Bora missions put you through some rigamarole towards the effect, but this troper has never found any definite mission or clue in the audio files that say the Bora get you back to Earth again.}}
* Concordance Extraction Company from ''[[Dead Space (series)|Dead Space]]'' specializes in [[Planet Looters|cracking entire planets open to get at the raw materials inside]]. Thankfully there's no [[Body Horror|alien plagues that resurrect dead people into twisted monstrosities out there]], and they [[Badass Bookworm|hire well-trained, albeit nontalkative staff people]] [[Improvised Weapon|capable of using every tool at their disposal]].
** It actually looks to be a rather okay business, and would've stayed that way had it not been for the Earth Military and their experiments and [[Church of Happyology|the Unitologists]] pulling strings and messing the business up.
Line 256 ⟶ 259:
*** Another Mega Corp called Wellby-Simms is mentioned in the background. Crayven bought its weapons from Wellby-Simms and ''Ground Control 2'' implies that of all the original Mega corps, Wellby-Simms was the only one that managed to survive the rise of [[The Empire]] by turning itself from a weapons manufacturer to a manufacturer of industrial and mining supplies.
*** [[All There in the Manual]]: not only is the government of Earth at the time of the first Ground Control essentially a council of Mega Corps, the Order of the New Dawn is - legally speaking - one as well.
* Omni-Tek from the [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]] ''Anarchy Online''.
* The FutureTech Corporation in ''[[Command
* ''[[Armored Core]]'', where every faction you work for (except for your mercenary organization, a terrorist group, or the mercenaries themselves) are these. According to the [[All There in the Manual|backstory]], in most of the continuities, the corporations also serve as the [[One Nation Under Copyright|government]].
** For an example, in the first series is Chrome, with its Chemicaldyne subsidiary. Opposed by ''another'' Mega Corp, Murakumo Millennium, who has no qualms about contracting a terrorist group, known as Struggle, to carry out their plans. A third, smaller company called ProgTech is introduced in ''Master of Arena'', but is shown to be a benevolent actor as opposed Chrome and Murakumo.
Line 263 ⟶ 266:
** The third series continuity sees Crest, Mirage, and Kisaragi. At first suppressed and kept in check by a supercomputer AI, they grew large (well, Crest and Mirage does, Kisaragi crushed in-between) after they broke free in Silent Line, Nexus introduces a new corporation, and Last Raven sees all companies band into one.
** The fourth in the series has the various companies destroy the various nations of the world in what is known as the National Dismantlement War and establish "Pax Economica", where survival depends on peoples' loyalty to a company. Ten years after that, in ''For Answer'', they form the League of Ruling Companies, which still basically rules the world and has these companies band together to become a single superpower, in theory, at least.
* Czerka Corporation from ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', shown as almost ''always'' being on the bad-side, and they're pretty much too big for Authorities to handle and police themselves.
* ExoGeni Corporation and Binary Helix, two human MegaCorps in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' fall under this trope perfectly. During the course of the game, Shepard discovers that ExoGeni let its employees get possessed by a malevolent [[Starfish Alien]] ''just to study what the effects would be'', and when things got out of control decided to kill everyone involved and erase all the evidence. Binary Helix, meanwhile, discovered a cryogenically-frozen [[Bug War|rachni]] egg on a derelict spaceship. Two thousand years earlier, the Council races fought a centuries-long war aganst the rachni and were finally forced to commit genocide to end it. Binary Helix decided to ''breed new rachni soldiers and market them as a superweapon for the [[Big Bad]]''; the solution once they inevitably rebelled was to kill everyone involved and erase all the evidence. Both corporations are linked to the human-supremacist [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|well intentioned extremists]]/[[Complete Monster|complete monsters]] organisation Cerberus.
** ''[[Mass Effect|Mass Effect: Ascension]]'' introduced us to the Eldfell-Ashland Energy Consortium, one of Cerberus' shell companies and responsible for multiple "accidental" in-utero exposures to element zero. About 10% of foetuses exposed develops biotics; 30% develop fatal cancers.
** ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' gives us Elkoss Combine, a volus Mega Corp which produces, amongst other items, weapons, food, omni-tools, medical and beauty products. An ad on Illium advises users of one of their beauty products that uses sonic waves to cease using it immediately. Another ad mentions one of their weapons, which ''also'' uses sonic waves. Even better - Those two are the same ad, and its implied that the beauty project and the weapon are one and the same.
* The Shai-Gen Corporation from ''[[Crackdown]]'' and also {{spoiler|the Agency itself}}.
* Houses in ''[[Imperium Nova]]'' can seem more like this than [[Feudal Future|feudal nobles]]. Especially those operating in the mercantile, transportation, technology, financial, geological, or [[Private Military Contractors|military]] spheres.
** To be more specific, in most Feudal Futures a house owns a planet or an area on a planet, in this game houses only rule planets if they enter the Politics sphere and have one of their members (or more often hired retainers) run for senate. In addition houses can build facilities on any planet within range of their homeworld. When you add that in at least one galaxy [[The Emperor]] is an elected position the eponymous imperium sounds more and more like a Federation run by corporations, like the U.S. except the CEOs have titles like "Duke" or "Marquis" and are allowed private armies.
* ''[[Dystopia (video game)|Dystopia]]'' has Datatrust, a mysterious corporation that has even [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|demonstrated control over the development team]].
* ''[[Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere]]'' features this in the form of General Resource Ltd. and Neucom Inc., who are at war with each other at the start of the game. The series returned to national conflict setup with ''[[Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies|04]]'', but chillingly, ''[[Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War|5]]'', ''[[Ace Combat Zero
** In fact the entire series between ''Electrosphere'' and the [[Continuity Reboot]] with ''[[Ace Combat Joint Assault|Joint Assault]]'' (except maybe ''[[Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation|6]]'') can be safely considered one giant [[Prequel]] to the Usean Corporate War.
** Escalated in ''[[Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown]]'' with mercenaries deployed by General Resources partaking in the conflict, alongside the development of advanced AI technologies, such as Alex.
* The [[Big Bad]] in ''[[Fur Fighters]]'' sent up his own vast Mega Corp at some point and it's shown throughout the game at many points doing many different things. Presumably Viggo got the money for everything from getting advanced technology from the dinosaurs (don't ask) and then decided to bid massive air-craft-carries and submarines to conquer the world.
* The Post-Terran Mining Corporation in ''[[Descent]]''. All they do is mining, but they control dozens (that we see) of incredibly large mines in at least eight star systems (likely more). They also have their own mercenary force, which is large enough that the ''combined Sol System military'' considers it a legitimate threat.
* ''[[Raptor : Call Of The Shadows]]''? Your employer is even called Mega corp, and they run a private airforce, sending you against other corporations armed with the usual [[Shoot'Em Up]] hordes of enemies.
* The [[Meaningful Name|Zaibatsu Corporation]] from ''[[Grand Theft Auto
* The Tokugawa Conglomerate in ''[[Policenauts]]''.
* In the ''[[Zork]]'' games, by the end of the reign of King Dimwit Flathead the Excessive, every single zorkmid of commerce in the entire country was controlled by
* SynTek Megacorporation Incorporated from ''[[Alien Swarm]]''. They own an entire star system, including several mining colonies, a penal colony, and a space station. They also own several planets and mining colonies outside their star system and several fleets of starships used to transport employees (dubbed colonists) and materials to and from their colonies.
* SynTek is also the name of the villainous Mega Corp in ''[[SiN]]'' and ''SiN Episodes: Emergence.''
* ''[[Deus Ex]]'' has Page Industries, a true Mega Corp with major roles in (at least) network communications, space mining, and heavy manufacturing; and its subsidiary Versalife, a massive pharmaceutical company with political power because it's patented the cure to [[The Plague]] {{spoiler|which it also produces}}. These accumulated their power, technology, and R&D expertise as {{spoiler|arms of [[The Illuminati]] before their owner, Bob Page, splintered off to pursue his own ends.}}
** Sarif Industries in ''[[Deus Ex:
*** [[Game Mod|Mods]] for ''DX'' ''[[The Nameless Mod]]'' and ''[[2027]]'' feature WorldCorp and Human Horizon. In ''TNM'' you can either join or fight WorldCorp. Human Horizon in ''2027'' is hunting you down for a better part of the game.
* ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' gives us Abstergo, a pharmaceutical company on the surface which functions as the modern day front for an [[Ancient Conspiracy]]. Lucy Stillman mentions that her inability to be taken seriously after she finished college - and thus her inability to find a job until she was approached by Abstergo - was likely a series of failures specifically designed ''by'' them so she would have nowhere else to go for employment. She further assures Desmond that while this may sound ridiculous, they ''can'' do it. They also trace Desmond via his motorcycle's registry, apparently without going through the police.
** This is taken even further in the [[Assassin's Creed II|sequel]], where through a series of mad revelations, you gradually find out that Abstergo, under one name or another, has been manufacturing ''all'' important technological or political progress for ''centuries''.
* ''[[Whiplash]]'' has Genron, which produces the main characters, a crazed weasel chained to a [[Nigh Invincible]] rabbit, through animal testing. [[Rewarding Vandalism|Your job is to bankrupt the company by smashing everything in sight.]]
* The Hadden Corporation, source of paranormal-detection gadgets in the ''Dark Fall'' game series. Not nearly as big as most examples, yet its director's influence over events is vastly out of proportion to this company's modest size {{spoiler|due to his apparent access to prophetic powers and/or time travel}}.
* The Patriots of Metal Gear Solid fame count as this. They are a secret organization that runs the American Government from behind the scenes deciding everything from who gets elected into Congress to who gets to be the President of the United States and have a firm control of the CIA and the Pentagon who conduct their secret Military operations and projects funded with massive stashes of secret cash that can't be tracked by the legal government. They control all the media that the American people consume, everything from literature, TV, movies, and Internet is all filtered by them for your enjoyment and have all the major corporations in their back pockets which influence the government and the average citizen. They are also implied to have international reach as they have secret bases which are mentioned in the story in China and Russia. Not to mention all the technological achievements they have accomplished, they have engineered clones from Big Boss's DNA which Solid Snake and his two brothers are the result of, have conducted genetic engineering which is capable of improving a human being into a super soldier, created super-powered exoskeleton suits that are akin to Iron-Man that can give a man super-human strength and speed, and massive bi-pedal, walking, nuclear-launch capable battle tanks known as Metal Gears. Stuff like this would run the U.S Government's economy into the ground but the Patriots seem to have no trouble funding these projects.
* ''[[Xenosaga]]'', and by extension, ''[[Xenogears]]'' has Vector Industries (simply called "The Company" in the ''[[Xenogears]]'' ''[[Word of God|Perfect Works]]'' book). Vector makes everything from starships to cellphones, has a branch on every inhabited planet in the galaxy, holds conciderable sway over both the local and federal governments of the [[The Federation|Galaxy Federation]], and has been around for (at least) 7000 years. They have a rival corporation called Hymas, but
* ''[[
* ''[[Nexus the Jupiter Incident]]'' has a number of
* Facebook's ''Wasteland Empires'' has Omega Corp. They were involved in pretty much everything before the [[Depopulation Bomb]] and released a virus that turned some of the population into slime coated mutants-in fact, they likely caused the destruction of the world in general.
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] 3: Morrowind'' has House Hlaalu, a high fantasy megacorporation that belongs to the Dunmer royal house. The other Houses are less mercantile and don't resemble corporations, they are respectively a warrior aristocracy (Redoran), a feudal magocracy (Telvanni), a church (Indoril) and plantation slave owners (Dres).
* ''[[Killer Instinct]]'' has Ultratech, a megacorporation that has replaced all world governments. They kidnap an alien to extort his participation in a fighting tournament, bring demons to earth from other dimensions, manufacture evil-looking military cyborgs, and are bioengineering a velociraptor-human hybrid, among other things.
* The original ''[[Hyperdimension Neptunia]]'' had Avenir, which had the economy of Lastation so firmly under their control even their resident Goddess found it hard to outright deal with them {{spoiler|especially since they worked rather hard to keep her in the dark about their shady side for awhile}}, even possessed such considerable considerable economic power they had factories churning out entire armies of [[Humungous Mecha]] that gave them the military power of a nation state. By the end of the game they still retain most of this power, but under the much more firm oversight of the Lastation CPU to much more benign ends.
** The entire society of Gamindustri functions as a 70-30 mix of this and a [[Theocracy]]. The theocracy comes from the fact the Goddesses/Console Patron Units (CPUs) literally live or die based on the faith of the populace. The commercial aspect comes from the fact society is based on production of various video game hardware and software as government sanctioned enterprises (and which society is primarily geared towards supporting), to the point the lands of Planeptune, Lastation, Lowee, and Leanbox are video game console companies and their associated developers, only with the power and functions of a nation state.
** Oddly averted in ''[[Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart]]'', as the world of Gamarket more resembles four nation states, and each nation state has their own associated territories under the care of a general in a feudal lords and vassals arrangement.
* In ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse|Werewolf the Apocalypse: Earthblood]]'', the bad guys are a corrupt petroleum company called Endron. Which is different from the [[Real Life]] petroleum company [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron Enron] because... uhm... Okay, fine, it ''is'' supposed to be the real Enron. This ''very'' unsubtle [[Take That]] likely only got past the legal department because Enron has been defunct since 2006.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[The Suburban Jungle]]'' had MegaHugeConGloMaCo, which was acquired by Amalgatronix Corporation. From the FAQ:
{{quote|
They merge with, take over, or establish corporate relationships with other huge companies with similarly vague names. }}
* The closest ''[[Freefall]]'' has is Ecosystems Unlimited. They control most of the colonized planet, own most of the robots, and even one of the main characters' ''species'' (and they owned her too until they sold her). This may be due to the planet not being totally [[
* The Maytec Consortium of ''[[SSDD]]'' essentially owns [[Divided States of America|California]], has a standing army, and claimed all of Mars (until the Anarchists went there and found better mineral deposits). They're essentially the third greatest superpower in the solar system, due partially to their selling weapons to both sides of the CORE/Anarchist cold war.
* Creed Corporation in ''[[Friendly Hostility]]'' and
* HeretiCorp from ''[[Sluggy Freelance
** The current arc deals with other corporations run by supervillains such as Nofun corp and Crushestro industries, though they are more specialized (mutagens and weapons in the case of the two stated.)
* [[Sarah Zero]] has [[Fun with Acronyms|PISSS]].
Line 313 ⟶ 320:
== Web Original ==
* ''[[Nexus Gate]]'' has the Kovolis Corperation.
* Goodkind International, in the ''[[Whateley Universe]]''. They make a big deal about taking care of the 'little people' and being a responsible corporation. But the CEO disinherited and disowned his own son when the boy became a mutant, and ''turned the kid over to a company mad scientist for experiments''. Kind of makes you wonder about the company now...
** Since they're also behind the highly anti-mutant "Humanity First!" organization and the main backer of the anti-mutant paramilitary Knight of Purity, as well major funders of the international Mutant Commission Office, we probably don't have to wonder all that much. It's pretty clear now.
* BIOCOM of ''[[Broken Saints]]'' fame fits the bill.
* ''[[Open Blue]]'' has Remillia, essentially a nation whose main political parties are basically competing Mega Corps.
* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20130617171826/http://sosdan.conforums.com/ Suzumiya Haruhi no Yaku-Asobi]'' has TsuruyaCom, which spans multiple star systems in ''[[The Multiverse|multiple dimensions]]''. Its products include everything from [[Carrier Battleship|interstellar warships]], to [[Memetic Mutation|smoked cheese]], to clones, to dimensional gateways.
* G-Corp from ''[[Gaia Online]]''. Founded by death-fearing megalomaniac Johnny Gambino, and [[Badass Grandpa]] Edmund, G-Corp was responsible for a majority of Gaia's technological, scientific, and medical advances. Unfortunately, when Edmund left the company, things took a turn for the worse. Now everything G-Corp makes (from pet dinosaurs to hair growth formulas) has a penchant to [[Gone Horribly Wrong|go horribly, horribly wrong]]. (To put this in perspective, G-Corp has caused the [[Zombie Apocalypse]] ''twice''. In fact, zombies seem to be their chief product). Ironically, G-Corp is actually the ''good'' company. {{spoiler|1=The evil company is NeXus, run by [[Big Bad|Labtech X]]. NeXus's sole purpose is to provide X with the means to take over the world. Their most famous achievement is using [[Applied Phlebotinum|G'hi]] to create a self-replicating, almost invincible army of [[Everything Trying to Kill You|Animated]]. They also build a cool [[Underwater Base]], a [[Humongous Mecha]], and a [[Scarf of Asskicking]].}} G-Corp also has a copy in S-Corp, which consists of "Elftechs," and is owned by the Claus family.
* The Triptych Corporation in ''[[Strange Little Band]]'' is an example of one of these.
* Precision Horizons in ''[[Above Ground]]'' is an all-powerful corporation ruling the underground human community. The Guild plays a similar role on the surface of the planet.
* ''[[
* In ''[[Orion's Arm]]'' the solar system was ruled by Megacorporations led by transapient [[A Isup]] until the [[Grey Goo|Nanodisaster]]. Now [[Deus Est Machina|Archailects]] control most of the population of Terragen space but Mega Corps still have a great deal of influence in the Non-Coercive-Zone ([NoCoZo]) and the Periphery.
* TOAST Industries, from the ''[[Netland]]'' series. A rare heroic, or at least protagonistic (that is, they're against universal annihilation) example.
* Crockercorp from the new {{spoiler|post-Scratch}} timeline in ''[[Homestuck]]''. It's Betty Crocker expanded from baking goods to superscience, with handheld teleportation devices and telepathic personal computers. Rumors circulate that Betty Crocker herself is an evil alien "Batterwitch" controlling it all and trying to brainwash the population. {{spoiler|They're right; she's actually Her Imperial Condescension from the trolls' ancestors' timeline.}}
* Lampooned in the [[YouTube]] video ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99l-ocvAs0M Top Ten Most Evil Corporations In Video Games]''; after detailing such nefarious organizations like [[Mass Effect|Cerberus]], [[Oddworld|Rupture Farms]], and [[Fallout|Vault-Tec]] (mentioning that [[Take That| the last one might actually be more ethical than Bethesda itself]]), the [[Lemony Narrator]] tries to place [[Electronic Arts]] at the number one spot, until an unseen editor tells him only fictional companies are allowed and he changes the top spot to [[Resident Evil|the Umbrella Corporation]].
* [https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/marshall-carter-and-dark-hub Marshall, Carter, and Dark] from ''[[SCP Foundation]]'' lore is an organization that, like the Foundation itself, is committed to researching SCPs and how to contain them, but in their case, have a much different motive - profiting from them. They are described as a group that "exists at the frightening intersection of dark anomalous power and unfettered capitalism", MC&D is [[Only in It For the Money]], and despite having [[Oddly Small Organisation| only about 100 actual employees]] at any given time (not counting other "groups of interest" they are allied with) their wealth and influence [[Fiction 500| rivals that of some entire nations]]. Much like the GOC and Church of the Broken God, they are usually portrayed as either antagonists or uneasy allies of the Foundation.
== Western Animation ==
Line 339 ⟶ 347:
* Surely Acme, makers of innumerable [[Warner Bros]]. cartoon products, must qualify? Certainly they're the only company big enough to arrange [[Product Placement]] whenever the coyote makes a purchase.
* Misery Inc. of ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]''. It's CEO, [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Lucius Heinous VII]], is identified as the mayor of [[A Hell of a Time|Miseryville]] on the [[Disney XD]] website, which still accuratly describes his position.
* Depending on how one looks at it the Irken Empire of ''[[Invader Zim]]'' could be this, or at least striving to be.
* Possibly [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' episode "Got Game" where we see a company named "Mega[[My Nayme Is|lo]]corp" in passing. [[One of Us|Knowing the creators, it wouldn't be a surprise.]]
*
Line 352 ⟶ 360:
== Real Life ==
* Cracked gives us [http://www.cracked.com/article_18845_6-secret-monopolies-you-didnt-know-run-world_p2.html "Six secret monopolies you didn't know run the world"].
* The British and Dutch East India Companies, as already noted in the ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' example above. Until the Sepoy Rebellion in 1857, the BEIC owned India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh (all of which was simply called "India" at the time). The Dutch company owned Indonesia until 1800, when it went bankrupt. Both were among the very first joint-stock corporations, as well.
* [[Your Mileage May Vary|Depending on what you personally believe]],
** Some have classified the [[wikipedia:Sea Org|Sea Org]] as a paramilitary organization, keep that in mind.
* In 1967 the Florida legislature granted [[Disney]]
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20130511060048/http://www.law.fsu.edu/journals/lawreview/downloads/362/emerson.pdf A citation] for those who like such things
* The Hudson's Bay Company owned the vast majority of the land now known as western Canada up until the late 19th century. It acted as the de facto government for the area, issuing its own currency and enforcing a monopoly on trade. The company survives into the present day, though it's no longer the Mega Corp it once was, being best known as the owner of several Canadian department store chains. It lost its independence after being bought out by the Zucker family in 2006, having lasted for more than ''three hundred and thirty years''.
* Inco, subsidiary of the Brazilian mining company Vale, can sometimes look like an evil Mega Corporation right out of a Cyberpunk story. Richer than whole countries, it buys and takes lands away from their people to mine metals (mostly nickel), bribing politicians to pay the least possible amount in taxes and fees. Once on their land, the union and employment laws of the country do not even apply anymore, and things have sometimes gone so far that the company was removed from the
* [[The New Russia|Russian]] company Transmashholding doesn't make ''everything'' but it does own all the locomotive, wagon, and other railway-related manufacturers, so it's only competing with itself. It acts like a cross between a close subsidiary and business partner of Russian Railways, itself technically a large corporation, albeit one owned by the government and whose president is a political appointee.
** [[The New Russia]] is, in fact, chock full of Evil Mega Corps; during the 90's, they were bigger than the government. The most notorious is certainly Gazprom, which produces natural gas used to heat most of Europe; other ones include LukOil (oil), RusAl (aluminium), MTS, BeeLine and MegaPhone (cell phones; MTS is in fact a subsidiary of the much larger but lesser known AFK Sistema, a
* For decades, corporations that owned coal mines in the U.S. Appalachian Mountains could get away with pretty much anything, and this led to a cautionary tale of what exactly this kind of behavior tends to result in. When the miners formed a union, the union leader was gunned down by 17 hired goons, and when a sympathetic sheriff investigated they had ''him'' killed as well and promptly tried to crush the union with yet more copious brutality, which resulted in the union militarizing and [[Bomb-Throwing Anarchists|radicalizing]] to the point where, when the actual law enforcement (who, granted, likely had had bribes from the companies) were called in to deal with "scabs" being sniped at, they were attacked by several thousand armed and angry miners talking about forming a [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|"workers' state" and of exterminating their oppressors and anybody remotely connected to them.]]
* Comcast. They even have localized Monopolies in some areas of the world. As a result of a localized monopoly, they can allow their customer service to slack because what choice do people have during monopolies? There are many places in America where you have to buy Comcast and deal with any data caps or restrictions they provide, or else you do not get internet. At ''all''. This is especially prevalent in their tech support, which is handled by another outsourcing company where the average employee retention span of ''a month''.
** Not to mention, Comcast and other ISPs made it illegal for small towns to run their own
** They have only gotten bigger, too; they are now the majority partner in [[NBC]] [[Universal]].
** A lot of ISP companies in general. The only reason they even ''have'' customers was the aforementioned lobbying and making sure they are the only options available instead of just ''providing better service''.
* The [[wikipedia:IG Farben|IG Farben corporation]] was a German chemical conglomerate that consisted of such present day firms as Bayer and BASF to name a few. By the 1930s, it had grown to become the 4th largest corporation in the world behind Standard Oil, General Motors and US Steel, but more importantly for this trope it had become intimately involved with [[Those Wacky Nazis|the Nazi party]], providing much of the German economy's exports as well as a sizable amount of its domestic industrial base. This economic importance buttressed the Nazi party through taxes, jobs and war material, and IG Farben worked hand in hand with the Wehrmacht taking over the chemical industries of
* The [[wikipedia:United Fruit|United Fruit Corporation]] came to dominate the economies of several Central American countries in the early 20th century due to its near monopoly in the Caribbean fruit trade. At one point United Fruit took effective control of the entire nation of Guatemala, giving meaning to the term [[Banana Republic]] in the process. Or, in other words: Chiquita is the devil. Seriously.
* Costco has become a variant of the "makes everything" in that it sells almost every single thing a human being needs to live, from cradle to [http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/17/news/fortune500/costco_caskets/ grave]. One could theoretically go one's entire life on Costco-sold products except for the textbooks you take to school and the tux/dress you are married in.
Line 380 ⟶ 388:
** While we're on medieval examples, we also have [[The Knights Templar]] and [[The Knights Hospitallers]], military orders formed during [[The Crusades]]. The Knights Hospitallers, for a long time in its history, controlled the Island of Malta under the name of the Knights of Malta, and the Knights Templar created the European banking system and only fell because of debtors who, rather than pay back their debts, had members of the Knights Templar killed for witchcraft, heathenry, or whatever reasons they could think up. While the Knights Hospitallers/Knights of Malta may strictly be described as a nationless state (as would the Hanseatic League, for that matter), the Knights Templar was the first multinational banking corporation, first banking corporation at all, and essentially defined what a multinational corporation was for the world.
* Partial aversion: Berkshire Hathaway, it is a $143 billion-a-year conglomerate that is involved in everything from insurance to textiles, yet the CEO, Warren Buffett only makes about $100,000 a year, and plans to give most of his money to charity.
* The oil industry as a whole is the most profitable industry in the history of the world.
{{reflist}}
Line 388 ⟶ 396:
[[Category:Alternate Reality Game]]
[[Category:Double Standard]]
[[Category:
|