Joe Biden has officially secured the Democratic nomination for President, and he will be challenging incumbent Donald Trump this November. Both campaigns have spent millions on advertisements to argue their case, though so far only the Biden campaign has used Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch to spread the word to potential voters.
As reported by The Verge, the Biden-Harris ticket will begin campaigning in Animal Crossing: New Horizons starting today, September 1. Four signs have been released so far, which Animal Crossing: New Horizons players can download and place on their islands, if they desire to do so. The designs include the Biden-Harris logo, “JOE” with a Pride flag as the “E,” “TEAM JOE,” and a row of red, white, and blue aviator sunglasses that Biden is known to wear.
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Considering Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ sales success and it being virtually impossible to campaign in-person right now amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it makes sense for the Biden-Harris team to use the game to campaign. To help promote their content in the game, professional gaming influencers will be hosting streams showing off the in-game merchandise to their viewers. It’s possible that the team will use Animal Crossing: New Horizons in other ways as well, or even look into using other video games besides Nintendo’s popular life simulation game.
One unlikely possibility is Joe Biden using Fortnite to campaign. At least one political adviser has already suggested that he do so by mimicking things like the Travis Scott concert event. It seems unlikely that Epic Games would want to promote political content in Fortnite, but given that game’s massive audience, it would potentially be a huge “get” for either candidate.
It’s worth mentioning that Joe Biden himself has had a somewhat tumultuous relationship with the video game industry over the years. In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre, Biden held a summit at the White House where he met with top video game executives to discuss the topic of video game violence. Biden later referred to a video game executive as a “little creep” and suggested that the video games the exec’s company was making “teach you how to kill people.”
Of course, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has virtually zero violent content, outside of being able to whack villagers in the head with bug catching nets. In any case, it’s likely that political campaigns will continue to use video games, especially as the medium continues to grow.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is out now, exclusively on the Nintendo Switch.
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Source: The Verge
