WASHINGTON -- Presidential candidate Herman Cain swears he didn't get the idea for his 999 tax plan from SimCity, but the makers of that video game are still having fun with the connection.
On Monday afternoon, Electronic Arts will be lowering the price of SimCity games on its website to $9.99 -- a $10 discount -- for a limited time.
It has also put out a video about the similarities between Cain's plan and the default tax rates in the game SimCity 4, which were first noted by The Huffington Post.
"The team behind the famous city management game are having fun with this possible connection and have created this video in good natured fun," said EA in a statement.
The video ponders the origins of Cain's plan, with cameos by video game versions of President Barack Obama, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Its final conclusion: "No, Mr. Cain. The 999 is a video game plan."
In a video aired Friday night on "The Rachel Maddow Show," a reporter asked Cain about the relationship between 999 and SimCity. "You said you had original ideas, successful people around you thinking ideas up," the reporter said while questioning Cain about the plan. "Is it an original idea or modeled after a game?"
"It's an original idea, and to people who say it's modeled after a game -- it's a lie," Cain said during a campaign stop in Tennessee. "That's all I'm going to say. It is a lie. You see, that's the difference when you become one or two in the polls. People make up stuff. That is a lie. I'm not going to take it back and not going to politically say, but unfortunately, that is not totally true. It's a lie."