War Thunder forums have been trading in military secrets for the past few years, and several users have been reprimanded for posting restricted material (opens in new tab) about jets, tanks and material from the British, French, American and Chinese armies. So it didn't take long for a story to appear on Reddit (opens in new tab) that defense contractors like Raytheon began asking new hires and their references if they played War Thunder. After all, they obviously can't be trusted to keep things under their hats.

The story spread like wildfire, but no matter how funny it was, it was not true: PCGamesN (opens in new tab) contacted Raytheon and asked if War Thunder players were really considered a risk to national security, The company quickly denied it. A spokesperson said, "It's a great story, but it's not true," and "we can't think of a case where any game would raise our concerns."

Obviously, they haven't delved into some of Steam's more esoteric user tags, but the point is that playing War Thunder does not, in reality, pose a threat to national security in the eyes of major US defense contractors. At least not Raytheon.

The authors of the original story went back to Reddit (opens in new tab) and confessed that they made the whole thing up and "lied on the Internet, like everyone else," but to anyone concerned that they were put on a watch list because of their War Thunder hobby apologized to them.

The community seems to have mostly taken the saga humorously, appreciating the bizarre attention it has brought to them and making fun of the furor it has caused (open in new tab). Still, it is probably only a matter of time before someone posts something intensely confidential on the game's forum to win the argument. Perhaps then Raytheon will reconsider its stance?