Play as the campaign manager for a host of candidates including Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, historical candidates or design one from scratch.

Players then choose their campaign battlegrounds and are off on the campaign trail to face a host of challenges including fundraising, talk show appearances, hiring spin doctors and winning endorsements. The game is won on Election Day by the player who gets the necessary electoral votes to become President.

The Political Machine 2008 is developed and published by Stardock Entertainment. The game uses a brand-new 3D engine designed to give the candidates a unique look (all candidates are presented as “bobble heads”). The 2004 edition of the game was a tremendous success. Using actual demographic data, the game accurately predicted the 2004 election months in advance. In June of 2004, Stardock’s CEO and Lead Designer Brad Wardell said that The Political Machine predicted that Ohio – not Florida – would be the key state and that whoever won that state would win the Presidency.

Real-world scenarios are mirrored in the game. Players can choose what TV shows to be a guest on and will face tough questions from the hosts of shows like Colvert Report and the O’Malley Factor. In addition, players can choose to play out different historical scenarios as well as fantasy scenarios taking place in the future.

The Political Machine is both a single and a multiplayer game - players can either compete against the computer or against others online on www.politicalmachine.com. The website also provides an ideologically neutral location for users to discuss the current election.

The Political Machine 2008 will be available via download on Stardock’s new digital distribution platform, Impulse, as well as in major retail outlets across the U.S. on June 17 for $19.95.