SimCity Games to Cost $9.99 in a Nod to Herman Cain

Herman Cain is a U.S. presidential candidate with a master tax plan. He claims it’ll return the country to prosperity, thanks to a two-phase plan he’s dubbed the “999 plan.” The nines represent the flat tax rate he would set for business, individual and federal taxes. But, that sounds a little, well, familiar, doesn’t it?

That’s because the 999 plan already existed way before Cain launched his presidential campaign — in Electronic Arts’ SimCity 4, which hit stores in 2003. Nine percent was the default flat tax rate applied to commercial, industrial and residential taxes in the game. The Huffington Post first made a note of the hilarious similarity. Cain, of course, denies SimCity inspired his plan.

That isn’t stopping EA from having a little fun with the whole story. Starting today, for a limited time, EA is knocking down the price of SimCity games on Origin to $9.99, in a nod to Mr. Cain and the plan that totally wasn’t inspired by a video game. I guess now’s the perfect time to take SimCity 4 for a spin to see if this plan actually works, right?