Summary
- Video games provide an escape to live out fantasies of wealth and power, challenging real-life barriers to financial success.
- Games like X4: Foundations offer opportunities for players to amass wealth through empire-building and strategic investments.
- Grand Theft Auto 5 embodies real-world financial struggles and opportunities through strategic stock market investments and criminal activities.
Unless a person is born into wealth, lucky, willing to make great sacrifices, or on the psychopathic side of the spectrum and able to make connections in the corporate or political world, making big money in real life isn't easy. Thankfully, video games can allow players to live out their greatest fantasies, be that wielding great physical strength, being a part of something larger than themselves, or, crucially, living the big life with a big bank balance.
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Open-world games promise an entire landscape of opportunity for players to discover on their own, from open-ended towns to 1:1 scale galaxies. These games are especially interested in seeing their players line their suit pants or space boots with tokens of exchange in excessive quantities, from galactic credits to crisp paper bills.
7 X4: Foundations
Star Sales, Cosmic Construction, And Interstellar Investments
X4: Foundations
- Released
- November 30, 2018
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Simulation
After accruing enough capital in X4: Foundations, it is possible to make big space bucks without ever climbing into the cockpit of a spaceship again. Players can use their wealth to purchase more hauling ships and pilots to fly them to grow their trading empire into a money-making machine or venture off to construct personal space stations and factories where certain services and materials are in high demand.
Of course, freelancing is always an option, and there are plenty of treasures to find, in another ship's cargo hold or hidden throughout explorable areas, to keep the credits flowing. X4's entire universe is constructed on a simulated economy, meaning that the logistics gameplay is dynamically driven by supply and demand. Understanding this balance is the key to creating a successful empire, as is the ability to parse its rather dense UI, but those who find joy in spreadsheets and charts should have no problem with this.
6 Mafia 3
Rackets, Extortion, and Blood Money
Mafia III
- Released
- October 7, 2016
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Game Experience May Change During Online Play, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure
In Mafia 3, players step into the starchy pinstripes of Lincoln Clay, aiming to dismantle rival criminal operations and establish their own empire. By taking over rackets and assigning them to underbosses, players unlock passive income streams and upgrades, so long as they remember to collect their kickbacks.
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The progression system in Mafia 3 is tightly linked to financial growth, emphasizing the importance of strategic expansion. There aren't as many whimsical distractions as other open-world games might provide, as Mafia 3 is all business, but the focus on monetizing criminal ventures still provides a compelling gameplay loop.
5 The Sims 3
Money-Making Strategies In Suburbia
The Sims 3
- Released
- June 2, 2009
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T For Teen due to Crude Humor, Sexual Themes, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Simulation
The only open-world Sims game, The Sims 3, has an odd setting, especially from today. Its world seems to be a mashup of the 2010s (its release years) and an idyllic vision of the 1950s (America's most economically prosperous period). Be it working from home, getting a nine-to-five, collecting space rocks, or investing in local businesses or house flipping, players primarily advance through the game by making Simoleons.
Just like in real life, Sims accrue the greatest fortune by amassing generational wealth (wealthy Sims passing their fortunes down) and by making their money work while they sleep with investments (buying real estate and collecting shares in businesses). Every Sim is given a 15,000 Simoleon welfare check with which they can buy a house (a transaction which is, for most people in the real world today, a dream that is already well out of reach).
4 Grand Theft Auto 4
A Land Of Liberty, Opportunity, And Criminal Activity
Grand Theft Auto 4
- Released
- April 29, 2008
WHERE TO PLAY
The Grand Theft Auto series has always been about amassing a fortune of ill-gotten gains like a high score, but Grand Theft Auto 4 grounds that mission from the perspective of Niko Bellic, an expat with a violent past who relapses back into a life of violence after realizing that America's promise of fair compensation for hard work is nothing but a carrot on a stick.
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While Niko can make fat stacks for indulging in his criminal tendencies (and, by the end, wallowing in them), he represents the working man's criminal. Every decimal point jump in his bank account is earned not through insider trading or stock market manipulation but on the job, even if those jobs happen to be robberies, assassinations, kidnappings, or car theft.
3 Yakuza: Like A Dragon
From Street Thug Rags To Executive Afluence
Yakuza: Like A Dragon
- Released
- November 10, 2020
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol
- Genre(s)
- JRPG
As every other character in the series likes to opine, there is more to the Yakuza life than making money. However, making money is still the central goal in Yakuza: Like A Dragon, which sees protagonist Ichiban go from rags to riches over the course of his journey. Yen doesn't just flow from beatdowns and street fights (although that's one way to do it).
Like a Dragon introduces a robust business management minigame where players take over various businesses, beginning with Ichiban Confections. By handling smart acquisitions, savvy employee management, and level-headed shareholder meetings, players can climb the corporate ladder and make significant profits for themselves and their enterprises.
2 Elite Dangerous
Infinite Growth In An Infinite Void
Elite Dangerous
- Released
- December 16, 2014
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T For Teen due to Drug Reference, Fantasy Violence
- Genre(s)
- Flight Simulator
Elite Dangerous throws players into the vast, uncaring void of space where earning credits is the only preferable option to the airless vacuum of space. With a 1:1 scale recreation of the Milky Way, players have free reign to engage in mining, trading, smuggling, negotiating, bounty hunting, or piracy, if they wish. Consistent profitability hinges on finding the right ship configuration, taking advantage of market fluctuations, and long-term strategic planning.
The game's dynamic economy reacts to player actions, making each financial decision impactful. There is a steep learning curve, and some specialist equipment (such as a spaceworthy joystick) comes highly recommended. However, those who manage to escape the newbie gravity well may someday find themselves exploring the universe in the kind of exclusive, luxury mega-ship that only today's most megalomaniacal billionaires could dream up.
1 Grand Theft Auto 5
Living The Moneymaking Dream
Grand Theft Auto 5
- Released
- September 17, 2013
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Mature Humor, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
- Genre(s)
- Open-World, Action
In many ways, Grand Theft Auto 5 is the closest an open-world game has ever gotten to depicting a real-life United States of America. The game offers a sprawling, satirical version of Southern California, complete with a functioning (in the modern sense of the word) economy. It even has an in-game stock market, which the player can exploit through strategic investments and strategic assassinations.
Money is the name of the game, at least for Franklin, who yearns to grow out of small-scale crime and pull off a job that will set him up for life. Of course, nothing ever goes to plan in GTA, and Franklin soon finds himself tangled up with GTA 5's other protagonists, Michael and Trevor, and drawn into chaos beyond his paygrade, after which making money isn't just a life goal but a necessity for survival.
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