Wanna Know Which Game Developer Donated to Which Presidential Candidate?
By Stephany on Friday, October 3rd, 2008 at 8:14 AM PST In Game Companies, Gamer Life, Games, Games Industry
Game developers are just like every other business when it comes to donating money to candidates who share their philosophy or whom they think will benefit them in the long run, and this year, the presidential race is no exception. Over the past few years, big names in the gaming world like Strauss Zelnick, John Riccitiello, and George Lucas have donated to different democratic candidates running for senate or the White House; while Bobby Kotick and Will Wright have sent checks to republicans running for different offices.
Thanks to some in-depth research from GamePolitics, we now have information pertaining to where each one of these big names sent money, and while each person donated to different sorts of campaigns over the years, we will only focus on which presidential candidate they were rooting for this year.
Republicans:
- Will Wright: (Spore, The Sims) $3,000 to McCain; previously donated $2,350 to Giuliani
- Bobby Kotick (Activision CEO) $2,300 to McCain; previously donated $2,100 to Romney
- Curt Schilling (38 Studios) $2,300 to McCain.
Democrats:
- Strauss Zelnick (Chairman, Take-Two) $2,000 to Obama; had previously donated to $2,500 to Edwards, $1,000 each to Biden & Richardson
- Ben Feder (CEO, Take-Two) contributed $1,000 to Biden in 2007
- Sam Houser (Rockstar) $4,600 to Obama
- Patricia Vance (president, ESRB) $2,000 to Obama
- John Riccitiello (CEO, EA) $4,600 to Obama
- John Smedley (Sony Online Entertainment) $2,300 to Obama
- Richard Garriott (a.k.a. “Lord British”) (Ultima series, NC Soft) $2,300 to Hillary Clinton
- Alex Rigopulos (CEO, Harmonix) $32,900 to Obama
- Kathy Vrabeck (president, EA Casual) $2,300 to Obama
- George Lucas (LucasFilm) $33,100 to Obama
- Doug Lowenstein (former ESA head) $2,300 to Hillary Clinton
- Kenneth Doroshow (new ESA general counsel) $2,500 to Obama
- Gabe Newell (pres., Valve) $2,300 to Dodd
While this site is in no way shape or form political in any way, we do like our readers to be informed when gaming is mentioned in the political realm, and no matter who you will vote for this election year, being gamers it is your right to know which way the companies you shell out money to are leaning.
If you would like the full list of who each of these developers donated to over the years, visit GamePolitcis and click on each person’s name, and you will be redirected to a page listing the date and name of the candidate who was showered with green.
Two lots of 33,000 to Obama? I guess these CEOs have lots of money to spend
At least they are putting it towards a good cause.
Is anyone going to buy, or not buy a game based on this info? I don’t care who they support politically. I care if they make a good game. I mean, we’ve had some of the best games ever during the Bush administration right? Oh, wait, that’s irrelevant.
I can’t believe Will Wright is a fucking asshole piece of shit Republican. No wonder Spore has such fucking bullshit DRM. He wants to increase his grip on us gamers just like Bush’s administration has on our wallets and our souls.
FUCK YOU WILL WRIGHT! I WILL DOWNLOAD SPORE ILLEGALLY AND MAKE A CREATURE THAT LOOKS LIKE YOU WITH A COCK IN ITS ASS YOU SON OF A BITCH!
I pray the above commenter is not old enough to vote.
Fuck Will Wright for propping up the Republican fascist regime. Extremely disappointed to read that. Won’t be buying anymore Will Wright titles, that’s for sure. I can’t support anyone who thinks the Republicans have done anything other than destroyed America.
Bad Lucas, bad. Guess I can buy Spore now, seeing that Will Wright supports McCain. You broke my EA boycott, Will.
Pity… I was actually pretty close to buying Spore. Guess I can live without it.
Dont fucking base a game on what political race the lead designer is. 99.9% of the time, its impossible to tell what they are.
I think punishing the hundreds of developers who worked on a game by not buying their product b/c their CEO is a Republican is just plain idiotic.
I like how people are comparing the DRM in Spore and saying “it figures” that Will Wright is a republican, when it is the publisher, EA, that decides that type of thing. Oh, and EA supports Obama.
In reality none of it matters. Political stanc ehas nothing to do with quality of game.
I guess you guys are forgetting jack Thomson and hillary clintons anti-video game crusade. both of them are democrats, i guess you have also forgotten how after columbine damn near every democrat politician was blaming video games, and after V-tech they were blaming CSS. you guys are fucking retarded