The Political Machine 2020 costs $15 on Steam.
The Political Machine 2020 costs $15 on Steam.
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The DeanBeat: The Political Machine 2020 shows how hard it is to beat Trump

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 4 min

Hey, all of you folks who have been wanting a game about politics: it’s here. The Political Machine 2020, from Stardock Entertainment, arrived this week on the PC, and I played a few rounds of the presidential campaign strategy simulation game on Steam.

It reminded me a bit of the old Parker Brothers board game Landslide from 1971. I first learned about presidential politics in that game, and you can do the same with your family with this title, either in a single-player game or in multiplayer. And this new game gives me an excuse to talk about one of my favorite hobbies: politics.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.