Deus Ex Twin Towers 9/11 Myth Busters revisited

[Vexr]

Going down a random Deus Ex related rabbit hole on the internet, I chanced upon the youtuber MKaelus' (now deleted) videos, which included:

Is this real and was in the game files all along?

Doing a google search I see no such mention, just a lot covering the fact it was a 'myth' and was due to memory constraints at the time.

 

[Vexr]

Did some investigating of an install and found this in a skybox texture file:



Looks like they initially went with having a more realistic NY skyline as shown in the video.



But in the end went for a semi-fictional skyline with the surrounding city appearing closer than in reality.



I suppose to give that closer / more detailed look to the rest of the buildings, they needed to drop the twin towers. Seems artistic license resulted in the game never having them, but indeed a vestigial texture remains in the game's files