Startup Company Console Edition | Switch Review

February 4, 2023 Sean Coates

As a kid, whenever my parents were in the market for a new desktop computer for the household, the last thing on their minds when shopping was “how well does it run games?” As a result, I have limited experience and memories when it comes to gaming on PC. But of the few games I could play, I thoroughly enjoyed it. These were primarily simulator games, real-time strategy games, and the occasional point-and-click adventure. Startup Company Console Edition, by Hovgaard Games, seemed to offer what I thought would be an experience similar to those I played in my youth. However, it turned out to be missing some key components, which prevented me from fully enjoying this title.

Big Tech Energy

Startup Company Console Edition is a business sim and real time strategy game. You start by first naming your company, your website, and then deciding the type of site you wish to become. You have a choice between one of six types: social media, shopping, video streaming, video sharing, dating, or a gaming platform. Whichever field you select you’re given a list of the top 3 companies in that category, featuring humorous soundalikes or clever word puns to real world companies. (“Damp” instead of Steam, “Kwitch” instead of Twitch, etc…) Sadly though, the type of site you decide upon will barely have any effect on the overall gameplay. For instance, at no point are you negotiating with fictional in-universe movie studios as a streaming service for content, nor are you coordinating any sort of transport logistics or adhering to a delivery schedule as a shopping website.

Once you establish your company, you have a financial advisor who represents the investment firm. This advisor also serves as the game’s tutorial that’ll provide you with initial seed money to start out with. You, the player, are the CEO of your new startup company. As head honcho you must recruit employees to build your website. You start off small in a cheap office that can only hold a certain number of workstations. As your company grows in popularity, you’ll need to hire more staff, research new features, and rent a bigger office space to accommodate your growing staff and employees. Eventually you’ll also need to rent warehouse space to house a server farm to handle user capacity. Over the course of the game there will be incremental milestones to reach along with an influx of cash when you reach said milestones.

Strictly Business

Startup Company is played primarily from a static isometric point of view (think original The Sims). You start with hiring developers, designers, and researchers. The developers and designers crunch raw components all day for you to use in creating various features for your new site. Researchers will simply accumulate the amount of research points available which can be used to upgrade or unlock newer and more complicated recipes along with more advanced jobs. You can also train your existing employees so that their output will increase, and also crunch more advanced components.

So far what I’m describing sounds like any straightforward business sim. However, in the case of Startup Company, the gameplay focuses more on the analytical side rather than the creative. It’s for this reason why I didn’t get a lot of enjoyment out of my experience. I prefer sim games where I can solve problems creatively, like a city or a park. When it comes to Startup Company, I can sum up the gameplay in just two words: menu diving. There is a lot of text to read on screen pretty much all the time you’re playing. Therefore, I can’t recommend playing this game on the Switch when handheld.

The only creativity you’ll find in this game is in decorating your office and placing workstations. Even then all the decorations available are just that…decorations. You can build break rooms, a lounge, conference rooms with large tables, but you won’t see any workers using them. They stay at their desks all day, only to turn transparent after hours signifying that they’re AFK.

The Bottom Line

Overall, I can’t recommend Startup Company. When I saw trailers, I thought it had the potential to be something I would enjoy. I suppose I was expecting an experience along the lines of the Two Point Hospital or Two Point Campus games but set in an office. I will say that Startup Company plays well and I noticed no technical issues, beyond the issue of small text in handheld mode. And even though it’s mostly menu diving and looking at charts or statistics all day, at least it’s easy to navigate through. Also this game makes good use of the radial menu system, a tried and true mechanic for any competent simulator game to implement when making the leap from PC to console. Like we say in our mantra; “there’s no such thing as a bad game, just games that aren’t for you.” My criticisms all simply boil down to my personal tastes and not being a game for me. Surely there are those who will like it, but I’m giving this one a pass.

To hear me talk more about Startup Company Console Edition, be sure to listen to the January 26th episode of The Gaming Outsider Podcast around the 1:27:55 time stamp.

This review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy of Startup Company Console Edition provided by Stride PR for coverage purposes. It is also available on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC via Steam.