Could Halo 4 Have An Effect On The 2012 Presidential Election?

On November 6th, members of Generation X and Y will be running out in droves, but to where? Both the 2012 Presidential Election and the release of Halo 4 are taking place on that day, and I might be worried if I was President Barack Obama.

In 2008, younger voters received a good chunk of the credit for President Obama’s election, with turnouts that numbered between 22 and 24 million – an almost 10% increase from the 2004 election between President George W. Bush and Democratic nominee John Kerry. However, with so many young voters being gamers, the incumbent might not only find himself running against expected Republican nominee Mitt Romney, but, he just might find himself going toe-to-toe against the Master Chief.

The Halo franchise isn’t a stranger to this kind of controversy. In October 2007, the launch of Halo 3 was blamed for a 27% drop in Box Office sales as well. Of course, whether or not the game really had an effect on the Box Office is still a topic of debate. – I mean, have you seen The Heartbreak Kid? Neither have I, but the 29% rating on Rotten Tomatoes makes me raise an eyebrow. However, you can’t discount the possibility that this year’s politics might be adversely affected by Halo 4’s release. I, for one, am not looking forward to standing in line for hours with people telling me who I should vote for regardless of the reasons as to why I’m voting in the first place, or worrying about making sure that 100% of that stupid little choice box is filled by my pen so I don’t have to be concerned about the hanging chad debate being resurrected. But then again, do I really want to listen to a bunch of teenagers complain to the Gamestop clerk because they didn’t order the Collector’s Edition of Halo 4 in a timely manner? Tough call.

Of course, I wouldn’t be snickering if I was a Republican right now either. There are plenty of gun-loving, young conservatives out there that spend many an hour in front of the television and enjoy taking on hordes of Covenant baddies out there.  So the release of the Master Chief’s highly anticipated return could be a lose-lose for both sides of the aisle.

All I can say for sure is that whoever is banking on the youth vote during this year’s election might want to thank their lucky stars that Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Assassin’s Creed 3 don’t release until the following week.