Mega Corp: Difference between revisions

* 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 firearms—in fact, most people in the setting don't even know Pentex ''exists'', or if it does, that it's simply an independent entity without any ties to its constituent companies.

* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' has several interesting examples. Economic cartels like the [[De Vayne]] incorporation are more powerful that most governments on provincial worlds, they have private armies and small fleets to their name, more than enough to conquer a backwater world. However, all that power to nothing compared to that of the feudal orders of the Imperium.

* ''[[Shadowrun]]'' has ten Mega corps that produce nearly all the goods and services one can find in 2070.

** 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.

** 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 Corp—a conglomeration of several economic bodies who themselves rose to power and prominence as traditional governments failed in their area at the end of the twenty-first century. The WEC extracts everything, refines everything, manufactures everything, packages everything, sells everything, employs everyone. And they brook no [[La Résistance|red ink]] in the bottom line.

*** 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.

* The FutureTech Corporation in ''[[Command & Conquer|Red Alert 3]]''. In the original Red Alert 3, it is simply mentioned in the background for being the company responsible for technologies such as the Mirage Tank and the Chronosphere. In Uprising, they are a minor faction in their own right and are implied to be in near-complete ownership of the Allied military as well as being engaged in a conspiracy under the Allies' nose.

* ''[[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]].

** 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]].

* 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.

** 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.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* 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]].

 

== Western Animation ==

* [[Your Mileage May Vary|Depending on what you personally believe]], the Church of Scientology can be viewed as an organization that, at least, ''aspires'' to achieve this.

** Some have classified the [[wikipedia:Sea Org|Sea Org]] as a paramilitary organization, keep that in mind.

* 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 FTSE 4 GOOD index for failing to meet their human rights criteria. It also created a lot of problem for the environment, for example their plan to let go of their acidic waste directly in the UNESCO-classed lagoon in New Caledonia (a "coincidence" when the UNESCO decided to enter the coral barrier reef on the World Heritage List means that the part where their waste pipeline leads is one of the few not under the protection of the List).