Video game villains are often measured by their strength, cunning, or supernatural abilities. They are judged by theirboss fight difficulty, the horror they can inflict as a combatant or a manipulator, or the personal grudge that the protagonist has against them. However, there is a way to measure the mettle of villains that seems softer but can make a foe fearsome indeed: cold hard cash.
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In our capitalistic world, money makes the world go round and these villains understand that expertly. Money offers malefactors the ability to manipulate those around them, create fearsome fortresses, and satisfy every carnal desire they might have. Let’s explore these video game billionaires who aren’t afraid to spill some blood.
10Cave Johnson
Aperture Science’s founder was a pretty savvy businessman. Mainly serving as a disembodied voice providing exposition for hero Chell as she explores the facility ofPortal 2, Cave Johnson is actually not the primary antagonist of the Portal series. However, it was his stubborn desire to retain control that led to the creation of the sadistic AI GLaDOS, as her consciousness was provided by his loyal assistant Caroline.
Before his death from moon-rock-related lung damage, Johnson was a lover of science and progress, who willingly experimented on human test subjects including his own employees and attempted to cheat death by making himself an immortal AI. Aperture’s utter domination of the experimental physics field in the 50s showcases Cave Johnson’s wealth clearly.
9Oswell Spencer
Oswell Spencer, aResident Evilantagonist and the CEO of Umbrella Pharmaceuticals, is a textbook villain. Born to English nobility and raised in a castle along the coast, Spencer became obsessed with the idea of jump-starting human evolution through virology to create the Ubermensch (or the ideal/superior human being).
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This pursuit caused him to become a bio-terrorist and eugenicist, funneling his pharmaceutical fortunes into the Wesker Project, a mission involving Umbrella employees kidnapping ‘worthy’ children and injecting them with the Progenitor Virus. With Umbrella having so much power that it had its own paramilitary and was able to manipulate national governments, it’s clear that Spencer had some serious capital backing him up.
8JP
The mysterious JP, sometimes called Johan Petrovic or Jean-Phillipe, is the former financier of the terrorist group Shadaloo in theStreet Fighterseries. JP is an apathetic nihilist who sows chaos by heading multiple international NGOs and meddling with geopolitics, causing civil wars and framing Ken Masters as a terrorist.
7Andrew Ryan
Having made a sizable fortune through smart investments, striking oil, and operating a railroad,Bioshock’s most rigorous capitalist antagonist, Andrew Ryan, grew tired of ‘petty morality’ and the ‘parasites’ living off of government assistance. To remedy this, he created theunderwater city of Raptureto be a haven for visionary capitalists.
Rapture’s top-heavy economic system and manufactured drug addiction inevitably led to a civil war, causing Ryan to become Rapture’s draconian monarch. In this position, he ruthlessly executed his opposition and undermined the free-will of his people by using Plasmids to create a state of favorable mental suggestion. Andrew Ryan’s gleaming underwater utopia and otherworldly political power make him a billionaire villain for the ages.
6Dr. Wily
Though he might seem ridiculous, theMega Manseries' notorious Dr. Wily actually has a surprising amount of capital backing him up. Though his counterpart Dr. Light is focused on communion between robots and humanity, Wily is often bent on world domination through usage of the Robot Masters.
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5Rufus Shinra
The heir to and eventual president of the Shinra Electric Power Company (SEC) fromFinal Fantasy 7has got a sizable savings account. Rufus is a devout believer in the power of his company but does not care for his father President Shinra, as he finances Cloud Strife’s eco-terrorism group Avalanche to deliberately destabilize his father’s control over the company.
The SEC is the corrupt megacorporation in charge of harvesting mako energy, wielding tremendous influence as a political and structural entity on a global scale. Centered in Midgar, the company explores the stars, has a paramilitary force of super-soldiers, and regulates energy usage for the entire planet. It’s no exaggeration to say that Rufus Shinra, after his successful coup, controls the world to some degree.
4Handsome Jack
The sarcastic and power-obsessed CEO of the Hyperion Corporation from theBorderlandsseries, Handsome Jack is rich enough to buy a pony made out of diamonds. Once a low-level programmer, Handsome Jack manipulates his way to the top of the Pandora resource-harvesting company through hiring Vault Hunters to source weapons for him, constructing an orbital fortress, and outright murdering Hyperion’s president.
Obsessed with ‘civilizing’ the alien world of Pandora, Handsome Jack is ruthless in his assassination of rivals, decimation of the planet’s resources and manipulation of his own daughter, a Siren with the gift of bending technology to her will. With his near total domination of an entire planet as well as orbital settlements like Helios, Jack’s got mounds of cash lining his pockets.
3Ted Faro
Similar to Portal’s Cave Johnson, the wealthy roboticist Ted Faro is also long dead before the events ofHorizon: Zero Dawn. The founder of Faro Automated Solutions, this ludicrously rich inventor was largely responsible for a global catastrophe that almost resulted in the extinction of the human race. Faro’s unhackable Chariot military robots developed a glitch causing them to defy commands and consume biomass on a planetary scale, causing the event known as the Faro Plague.
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Though Faro ends his life going mad in a solitary bunker, his existence prior to the Faro Plague was decadent and luxurious. The world’s first billionaire and the undisputed wealthiest person on the planet, it is no question that Faro’s wealth was almost as infamous as his recklessness and ego.
2Dr. Eggman
Another villain who is not usually recognized for his wealth, the main antagonist from theSonic the Hedgehogseries takes our next spot. Obsessed with conquering the world and creating his own kingdom of Eggmanland, Dr. Eggman has been creatingrobots and industrial carnagesince his introduction. Throughout the series, he has tried to tame several elemental titans like Iblis and Chaos, enslave alien races, and awaken evil deities sealed in the planet’s core.
All of Eggman’s malfeasance is funded by front companies like MeteorTech, his oil empire, and his various casinos. And, this wealth is clearly on display in terms of the extravagance of his projects. He has enough capital to have built the central city of a robotic empire, an industrial moon fortress called the Death Egg, and a galactic amusement park consisting of five interconnected planets.
1The Illusive Man
Perhaps the most mysterious character on the list, theMass Effectseries' Illusive Man wins the prize for wealthiest video game villain. The founder of the pro-human terrorist group Cerberus and an executive of intergalactic proportions, The Illusive Man is able to manipulate entire planetary societies and corporations with his finances and political influence.
Deeply invested in the powers of Reaper technology and bringing people back to life via the Lazarus Project, The Illusive Man is cutthroat in his dedication to the ascendancy of humanity over other galactic life forms, even willing to kill his own followers for research purposes. He has his own private army in hand as well as numerous high-budget technology projects spanning the galaxy. Doubtless, the Illusive Man can smoke a cigarette near a supernova and relish in his wealth like no other.
