Forget Animal Crossing, Joe Biden has a Fortnite island for gamer votes

Forget terraforming in Animal Crossing to chase the gamer vote ⁠— Joe Biden and his 2020 election campaign has gone one bigger, building a massive Fortnite island to “mobilize” as many players as they can ahead of the US election.

Two weeks ago, Joe Biden rolled into Animal Crossing. You could visit his “Biden HQ” island, hang out with his player avatar, and register to vote for the upcoming 2020 election.

Now, Animal Crossing is so last month, and Biden has traded terraforming and turnips for ‘crankin’ 90s’ ⁠— the presidential candidate’s campaign has constructed a massive, Joe Biden-themed Fortnite island to “mobilize gamers” to vote.

The custom Fortnite map, called “Build Back Better with Biden,” lets players complete a solo adventure ⁠— around 20 or 30 minutes long ⁠— to promote Biden and Kamala Harris’ economic plans. The island itself has been built in Reboot City.

The aim, Biden’s campaign said, is to “engage players” ahead of the 2020 election.

The “Build Back Better with Biden” island is chock full of stuff to do. There’s the half-hour adventure, the “No Malarkey Station” to visit, six mini-games to complete ⁠— focused around cleaning up the island ⁠— and even a virtual polling booth.

Fortnite fans can also install high-speed broadband in Reboot City, “build a new research facility at the Historically Black College,” and collect Kamala Harris’ “kicks.”

All six Joe Biden/Kamala Harris Fortnite challenges

• Help Build a New Research Facility at Champ’s Construction site: “Build a new research facility at the local historically Black college. Build to the top, and stay inside the blueprints.”
• Install 3 Scranton Towers: “Help install these new 5G Broadband towers to ensure every American has access to broadband.”
• Restore The Aviator River: “Race to collect industrial waste and restore the river. This challenge highlights Biden’s plan to mobilize the next generation of conservation and resilience workers through a Civilian Climate Corps.”
• Visit Joe’s Famous Ice Cream Shop: “Slide down the colors (flavors) to get as much ice cream as you can.”
• Help make Major’s Auto Factory Run Clean: “They modified the line to produce electric cars and are now retrofitting the offices before reopening. Install new high-efficiency AC units and unwrap the solar panels on the roof.”
• Complete Kamala’s Sneaker Run: “Find all 10 of Kamala’s sneakers.”

“With voting underway and days until Election Day, we are continuing to meet people everywhere they are online and offline with innovative and thoughtful activations,” Christian Tom from the Biden/Harris campaign told Mashable.

• Read more: Fortnite leaker claims Season 4 event will be “biggest ever”

“We designed the ‘Build Back Better’ Fortnite map to do just that — engaging players in a substantive, approachable, and fun way to reach and mobilize voters.”

The code to access Biden’s ‘Build Back Better’ map is 0215-4511-1823.

Biden’s Fortnite island is far from the first time games have been sucked into the election too; Animal Crossing obviously had a spin last month, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Among Us in October to get more gamers to vote as well.

• Read more: Venom’s new Fortnite skin is going to be pretty scary

AOC’s debut stream, alongside Twitch superstars like Pokimane, Hasan, and DrLupo, set new records for how popular it was. Nearly 440k watched her first broadcast live, and another 5.4 million checked out the Oct. 20 VOD.

It’s pretty clear at this point that gaming has finally become political battlegrounds heading into the future. The question is, what game gets sucked in next?