Obama does a 360

By Davey Winder
Wednesday, 15 October 2008 15:33

Entertainment

With a third of American households owning one of the current batch of next-generation computer games consoles it was only a matter of time before a Presidential candidate started going after the hearts and minds of gamers...

There is really no doubting the tech credentials of US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama. From the most successful use of the Internet to raise big money from small donations, through to the recent release of an iPhone campaign application, Obama seems to have all bases covered.

On the social networking side of the fence, Obama has 'pwned' Facebook while both Obama and McCain campaigns have turned to Twitter before now.

However, while Obama has emerged as the undisputed and victorious Chief Twit things have not gone so well for John 'lamer' McCain who has been taunted for his lack of computer savvy.

Now, just as I get a working Xbox 360 back from Microsoft and fire up Burnout Paradise, whose face should I spot on a roadside poster right there inside the game?

Yep, Barack Obama has done a 360. His campaign team has bought in-game advertising space within online 360 games to run between now and election day.

With slogans such as "Early voting has begun" and the familiar link to the voteforchange.com voter registration site, Obama is taking the Presidential campaign game very seriously indeed.

So far the best that the McCain campaign can come up with on the campaign games front is a Facebook application called Pork Invaders, I kid ye not, that has the player launching vetoes at pork barrel spending pigs.

Some have questioned whether the in-game advertising actually represents a full 360 in political message terms for Obama, arguing that only this week he was "citing video games in stump speech about underachieving kids."

Whatever, expect to see the Obama billboards in a total of nine games produced by Electronic Arts which have been picked to directly target the 18 to 34 yard old male demographic. Including, rather ironically, NHL 09. One wonders what Sarah 'Hockey Mum' Palin will make of that?