Games and Politics Collide: Corporate Donations to Candidates

The last time we looked at the political connections in the gaming industry, we looked at contributions from individuals in the game industry like Sims creator Will Wright and Grand Theft Auto co-producer Sam Houser.

Now, Kotaku has done some studying of their own and found that, in accordance with previous unscientific efforts and an Xbox Live user poll, the games industry's support may swing in the direction of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The gaming blog checked the Federal Election Commission records for Activision, Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Sony Computer Entertainment of America, Take-Two, THQ, Ubisoft and Valve and found that they collectively "donated a total of about $97,800 to ten candidates, about $61,000 of which went to Democratic candidates, while about $36,700 went to Republican candidates."

Almost half of the total donations went to Obama. Other major recipients, from both parties, included Sen. Hillary Clinton, Congressman Ron Paul and Sen. John McCain.

According to Kotaku's report, "the company with the largest contributions to campaigns was Electronic Arts, followed by Activision and then Valve."