Over the past four decades, the global video game industry has tried to cover almost every area of human activity with its huge offer. It is not surprising, therefore, that there are hundreds of titles in circulation on the topic of business and corporate management alone.
Here are some of the most famous examples from the history of gaming, i.e. the best retro games, as well as the latest names that attract the attention of players with their attractiveness when it comes to the business theme.
Lemonade Stand and Other Pioneers
The first ‘business’ video game is the Lemonade Stand from 1973, which was later ported to Apple computers and was still relevant for a long time during the 1980s. It was played by several players, through 12 relatively short rounds, during which they had the opportunity to invest their funds in marketing, development, sales, and growth of shares of their stand for the sale of lemonade (as indicated by the name of the video game).
Certainly too simple from today’s point of view, this game has introduced several generations of children to the basic concepts of investing. Psychologists and pedagogues said at the time that, if children already have to look at computer screens, this is one of the better options because it also had an educational component.
The titles such as Taycoon from 1980 and Oil Barons from 1983 are included among famous pioneers while, for ZX Spectrum, the most played game of this type was The Biz from 1984 but it was entirely in text format, set on the principle of questions and answers.
Railroad Tycoon and Other Tycoons
The market in this segment really opened at the moment when the sale of PCs erupted, and computer graphics could support more demanding animations. Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon was a real revelation in the early 1990s when millions of teenagers (and older people) were trying to make their own railway empire.
Later, this game had five more iterations, ending in 2006, but with less success. On the other hand, its author Sid Meier and the company Firaxis will remain recorded in the history of gaming, as well as global pop culture, as the creators of the Civilization series.
However, when it comes to a large number of games that had the sequel Tycoon in their name, Pizza Tycoon, RollerCoaster Tycoon, and Zoo Tycoon were mostly bought for playing on PCs, in which, you guessed it, a pizzeria chain, an amusement park with a roller coaster, and zoo garden, respectively, were to be managed. By the same principle but without the recognizable suffix in the title was Restaurant Empire.
Today the Offer Is Bigger Than Ever
From the past year, two titles have stood out for playing on PCs. With its name, if not the game interface, Another Brick in The Mall draws attention, in which players manage shopping malls so they may be able to build their own versions of the Mall of America, Westgate Mall, or Dubai Mall.
On the other hand, there is SimAirport, which has the task of managing the airport. When it comes to mobile platforms, the offer has become significantly wider in the last few years, which is understandable. There is a sweetly illustrated AdVenture Capitalist, in which there are startups, angel investors, stock exchanges… and all with the creation of their own international corporation that will dominate world markets.
In addition, among the most popular are games that simulate the management of restaurants and shops, although – with simplified tasks and animation designed to attract, above all, the female part of the audience – there are those such as Chef Rescue or My Supermarket Story.
In contrast, Big Business even offers the option of playing offline for two in creating their own big business and fighting for market dominance, while Idle Factory Tycoon, even though reminiscent of AdVenture Capitalist in design, is already targeted at manufacturing industries, just like Industrialist.
The Most Sought After ‘Business’ Video Games for Mobile Phones
Of the Tycoon subheadings, the most popular and most downloaded on the iOS and Android devices market is Landlord Tycoon, where the goal is to become a tycoon in the real estate market and in the construction industry, with implicit problems with criminal interference, which is obviously a factor present in this business segment world.
Landlord Tycoon has had 12 million downloads in the Android version alone to date. Also, there is Junkyard Tycoon, which manages, believe it or not, car scrap and used car sales. All of the listed games for mobile platforms can be played entirely in free form, with some offering certain benefits at an additional cost – in most cases, these are ‘freemium’ segment games.
Not only that all these video games we mentioned could and still can prepare younger generations for similar jobs and management in real life, but they can also lay the foundation for their gambling as it is known that the video game industry is highly represented in the gambling industry – they go hand in hand.
This by itself does not have to be bad. Switching from benign playing video games to playing for money at land-based or online casinos (which are rated by the individual country – such as those here – features, payment methods…) can remain just a pastime and not always become an addiction – if played moderately.
