When you get two titles in a row that receive 9.0 or higher review scores, your game studio will enter a ‘golden age’ after the 2nd game is taken off the market.
During a golden age, you will get the following benefits:
Your next games will get a VERY large influx of free hype as soon as you you begin development.
You will also get a bonus to sales during a golden age. This includes your custom console and MMO(s) if you have any active.
The quality of new employee applicants will be higher when you are in a golden age, as your reputation will attract higher level employees. (It has no impact on the skills or levels of your existing employees)
You will gain 25% more fans from games than you normally would.
Publishers will begin offering contracts that have a much higher royalty rate (15-25%) but also have a 9.0 quality expectation and very steep penalties (much harsher than normal, going into the millions) if you miss the rating.
You will get 50% more visitors to your booths during conventions (G3 or self-run)
If there are no trends active, every 9.0+ game you release has a chance of starting a trend related to the game. The game’s review score will NOT get the trend bonus (The trend will start after the first week of sales), but its sales will. One aspect of the game will be picked at random (Audiance, Genre, New Topic, Strange Combo) to be the subject of the trend.
The market share of the platform you release your games on during a golden age will go up with each title you release on that platform, as people are willing to invest in a new platform just to play your games. If that platform is one that is due to eventually be taken off the market, each game you release for it during a golden age will push its ‘taken off the market’ date back by 6 months.
Perfect 10 games become possible, even if you lack the two specialists. You still have to earn the game quality score to receive perfect 10s, it just isn’t artificially lowered to 9.75.
Game Reviews will mention your golden age and praise you for continuing it when you make another 9.0+ game, or express sadness (“End of an Era”) when you release a game that ends the age.
It also causes a few penalties
Bugs left in your games will lower your score by 4 times the normal amount due to the expectations of quality.
The “Some Players are using illegal copies of your game” event is more likely to fire on each game.
The “Oh no, Bugs!” event becomes more and more likely the longer your golden age goes on.
Your golden age will end if:
You release a game that receives an 8.75 or lower review score. (That final game will still get the fan/hype/sales bonus from being made during a golden age)
You fail to release a patch when the “oh no, bugs!” event fires. (The game you were working on at the time will get the free hype but NOT get the bonus sales and fans)
You go two full years without releasing any games.
There is no limit to how long a company can remain in a golden age, as long as you maintain 9.0+ quality with every single game. You can only enter a golden age once per play-through. Once you leave a golden age, making another two 9.0+ games will not return you to a new one. If the game that breaks your golden age is bad enough to cause a normal loss of fans (4.0 or lower) the 25% fan bonus will cause you to lose 25% more fans instead.
Note: Being in a golden age does NOT give you ANY extra bonuses to the quality score or review scores for your games, you have to earn them naturally.
But thank you for your kind words.
