Game: Startup Company Console Edition
Genre: Simulation, Strategy
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam, Windows, PS4, Xbox One & Series X)
Developers | Publishers: HOVGAARD Gamers | 2Awesome Partners
Age Rating: US E | EU 3+
Price: US $12.99 | UK £12.99 | EU € 12,99
Release Date: January 26th, 2023
Review code used, with many thanks to 2Awesome Studio.
Startup Company Console Edition makes its way to Nintendo Switch after being released on Steam in 2020. Your goal in this business simulation game is to start a company, become the most extensive website in the industry, and compete against other tech giants worldwide. In the process, it will be up to you if you want to buy out or merge your competitors or be a meanie and outrun them until they go out of business.
New CEO
You are the new company’s CEO and can start a social media, shopping, streaming, video sharing, dating or gaming company. For example, I started a gaming website (which probably isn’t a surprise) and then moved on to a social media company and, finally, a dating app company.
You’ll rent office space and hire staff, developers, designers, and lead designers. Also, you’ll hire a manager to keep your team at their work and keep them on their toes.
Develop and Design
Once you have your team set up, you can have them develop and design components for your site. You’ll have to develop and improve features for your site visitors and attract more visitors. In addition, you’ll have to organise and run marketing campaigns and increase your website hosting capacity.
Furthermore, you must keep the staff happy with regular working hours and add features to your office space, such as coffee machines, furniture and vending machines. Most of the game’s strategic play time is spent trying to find the space in an office to keep your staff happy. Unfortunately, the offices available to rent are tiny, and if you haven’t the cash to expand, it results in unhappy and unproductive staff.
Don’t go Bankrupt
My first website, which I’d named Webby, crashed and burned as I ran out of cash. So for my next endeavour, I decided to start a dating app that was more profitable. Plus, I’d learned from my mistakes with Webby, and the game does have a relatively decent tutorial to walk you through all the steps.
There are specific goals to reach in the career mode to proceed in the game. However, a few goals could be explained to the player better than they are. There is also a Custom mode where you can choose your starting budget and have everything unlocked and available.
Visuals and Controls
Graphically Startup Company won’t knock your socks off with its looks. The graphics are alright, but the game overall and the office staff have little to no personality, making it very generic. The menu screens are white and can be hard to read in places.
The controls on the Nintendo Switch perform as they should. The game’s menu is a radial wheel, and it’s the best implementation of a radial menu in a game I’ve ever seen or used. So kudos to the developer for getting a functioning radial menu wheel, and it works perfectly.
Conclusion
Startup Company Console Edition held my attention for the first four or five hours. However, as I progressed and got nearer to the end of the game, it soon turned into a case of clicking to and fro and adding ingredients. I did play on but only in short bursts, and it wouldn’t be a game I’d replay. Overall the game is fine as a simulation but doesn’t offer the player anything new.
Final Verdict: I Like it 
Love the game. Definitely need better readability on the text side though. On steam, it’s very fun, casual management with lots of options.
Not to be contentious, but it’s spelled “radial”, btw.
Hi, thanks for reading and the tip.
Playing on the switch and I cannot get a second website to run. It stays at 5 registered users.
Have tried playing the game multiple times every time I get off of it and save it it will not load again without me deleting all my saved data and starting again this has happened to me three times now
Hi, thanks for reading and commenting. I’m not to sure what the problem could be, the game I had for review ran fine. Maybe if you contact the developers, HOVGAARD Gamers, they might be able to help you out.