Last week saw one of the year's biggest stories end in tragedy, when the search for OceanGate's Titan submersible ended with confirmation it had imploded, killing all five people on board. OceanGate's tourism business had the craft making repeated trips to the Titanic since 2021. But the incident prompted deeper investigation into the company, revealing how fast-and-loose it had been with safety.
One of the most surreal aspects of watching this event unfold was the repeated links people made to tech and gaming. Iron Lung, a horror game about being stuck in a submarine, became one of the points of comparison in the moment, with its creator remarking on Twitter "this feels wrong" as he saw sales for the game spike suddenly. There was chatter about Gabe Newell's investment in a submarine, or the Logitech controller used to pilot the Titan, and then perhaps most bizarre of all the tragic outcome was first confirmed by a relative sharing a message from the president of the Explorer's Club: Richard Garriott, aka Lord British, creator of the Ultima series.
