Upgrade Log
This page lists new features and upgrades made to the GoVenture CEO business simulation. Latest updates are at the top.
April 2026
- Our upgrades to make GoVenture CEO fully accessible to people with disabilities using the updated WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines are now complete. GoVenture CEO includes two interface options — the Default graphical interface and an Assistive interface that works with screen readers, keyboard input, and smartphones. Students can switch between the interfaces at any time using the interface selector next to the PLAY button.
January 2026
- Loans — Fixed a bug where the first loans issued in a simulation (all loans in the same period) would use the default 1% interest rate instead of the custom interest rate setting (this setting is rarely used so this bug rarely triggered). Loans issued in subsequent periods would use the custom interest rate setting (if used).
November 2025
- Social Share — When the News Update reveals the results of the latest period, players will be given the option to share their results on social media. This helps students enhance their personal brands with education and employment-related experiences.
October 2025
- Local Time Zone — All dates and times use the UTC time zone and now wherever a date and time appear, a second date and time will appear next to it in the player's local time zone (based on their device setting). This should make it easier to interpret deadlines.
- Negative Budget — On very rare occasions, a business might start a period with a negative budget. This was typically due to the business having an excessive number of employees in the previous period. This issue required intervention by the GoVenture team to correct, but now if this happens, the player can correct it by reducing the number of employees and/or salaries.
August 2025
- Smartphone News Updates were modified to clarify results shown when a simulation ends.
- Status Report was updated for team play to clarify when the business first joined the simulation (when the first team member joined).
November 2024
- New Instructor Guide available at https://books.playgoventure.com/5/gvceoig
October 2024
- The Ratio Analysis spreadsheet was updated to fix a possible rounding issue on sheet tab RATIOS 3 (Shareholder) Cell F14.
June 2024
- The Financial Statements and Ratio Analysis spreadsheets updated to include all optional accounting features.
- Rubric Report now includes a CSV export option.
May 2024
- The Marketing Investments report has been expanded to show investments made in advertising each period and the resulting Ad Effectiveness score.
Apr 2024
- Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement now include a button to copy the report data to the clipboard which can then be pasted into a spreadsheet or other document. This provides a cleaner process.
- HR Module does not allow players to set salaries higher than three times the minimum salary setting. And when employees in a job function are 0, salaries for that job function are fully ignored (to avoid confusion).
- Trial Balance Report — formatting updates.
- Subscriptions — Players can extend or renew their own subscriptions by adding a new Subscription Key. Previously, extending or renewing a subscription required players to contact support.
Mar 2024
- The 6-month student subscription extension for $10 is being discontinued after May 31, 2024. After this date, extending an existing student subscription can be done by repurchasing the same product at the original price. This new process is fully automated.
Jan 2024
Rubric Report
- Improved layout.
- Now includes the Competency Quiz and Team Evaluation as scoring options.
- Option to export results to a CSV file.
- Terminology changes to provide better clarity — Results Score changed to Balanced Score and Performance Score changed to Rank Score. These are only word changes not functionality changes.
News Update
- Instructors can now view the sales results animation using the Monitor Simulation function (on the Customers & Competitors Screen).
May 2023
- Competency Quiz results now include two tables that show All Results by Topic and individual Player Results by Topic.
- Troubleshooting — For simulation managers (instructors), a new section has been added to the ACTIONS tile which now combines previous features (Remove Player, Remove Business, Repeat Period) and adds new features: Change Business Name; Fix Errors (checks and corrects for two errors that occur on rare occasions when students first attempt to join a new Simulation Competition).
Apr 2023
- EVENTS are now copied when simultaneously creating multiple Player-Advanced simulations.
- Corrected some minor issues with the BALANCE SHEET and GENERAL LEDGER when a player joins a simulation after it has already advanced.
- Simulation Settings for HR Salaries can now accept a maximum of 9,999,999 instead of the previous maximum of 999,999. This provides more flexibility when using a currency that has a low unit value.
Feb 2023
- FINANCIAL RATIOS spreadsheet updated.
- COACHING REPORT — minor modifications made in Period 1 to clarify information available before a simulation has advanced.
Nov 2022
Turnover Rate
- Added more clarity on the employee Turnover Rate and associated costs. The new info appears under the two help popup windows.
Jun 2022
Currency Exchange
- Changed how currency exchange affects pricing and sales. Previously, the price set for a product was the same in domestic and foreign currencies. This could be problematic with high or low exchange rates as it affected revenue and profit earned per product sold. Now, the price is converted to the foreign currency based on the exchange rate. This assures that profitability per product sold remains consistent, regardless of the exchange rate. The quantity of products sold will change based on the exchange rate. Details are in the User Guide.
Competency Quiz
- Various questions have been updated to add more clarity.
- Issues with rounding of numbers have been corrected to avoid ambiguity.
Learning & Activity Book
- Published a new version of this book, which is now called Business Superhero — a 240-page book that helps students learn the fundamental concepts of business and entrepreneurship, including a glossary of over 100 terms. The older version of this book is still available for instructors who may have referenced pages in the old version. The old version of the book includes input fields, but the new version does not and instead makes the answers available to students at Georghiou.com.
Apr 2022
Competency Quiz
- Global Statistics are now available to allow instructors to compare their student performance to other students around the world.
- Statistics and a score distribution chart are now available for each quiz issued by an instructor.
Feb 2022
Instructor Dashboard
- Instructors who have hundreds or thousands of simulations under their accounts will now see a speed increase when accessing the instructor dashboard.
Competency Quiz
- Various improvements have been made to questions and answers.
Reports
- HR Table added to Debrief Performance Report.
- Rubric Report loads faster, particularly for simulations with many players.
Teams
- Students who join the wrong team can now access directions on how to move to the correct team. Instructor intervention is still required, but this speeds up the correction process.
Jan 2022
Rubric Report
- Formula dropdowns changed from 10% increments to 5% increments to allow more granular choice.
DEBRIEF Performance Report
- The line colors shown for each business are now consistent so the same color is applied to the same business in each chart.
Custom Events
- Increased the amount of cash that can be set for an event from $1 million to just under $100 million.
Dec 2021
Monitor Simulation
- Launch the simulation and view it as players do. Monitoring a simulation is useful for checking the simulation interface and settings. You will not affect the simulation in any way.
QuickStarts
- QuickStart simulations have been reorganized into new categories to make them easier to find.
Quizzes and Reports
- The Competency Quiz now appears to students when it is created to inform them that it can be started on the designated Start Date. Previous to this update, the quiz would not appear until the Start Date and this caused some confusion with students who expected to see it before then. For clarity, even though the quiz is now visible, it cannot be taken (and questions cannot be seen) until the Start Date.
- Coaching Report now has a chart of Cumulative Net Profit Over Time and a data table for Competitiveness.
- Debrief Performance Report now has charts for Rankings and Net Profit so changes over time are easier to monitor.
Nov 2021
Balance Sheet and Income Statement Now Scrollable
- Reports only have enough room to show a few columns of data. As a result, in a simulation that is more than 4 periods, the earlier periods are combined into a single column to allow room for the more recent periods to be displayed. This is now changed so that you can scroll through the columns and see all periods without any of them being combined.
Company R&D Investments Now Include More Visibility
- Investments made in R&D by competing businesses are now more clearly defined in the reports. Per unit, recurring, and costs to change are now displayed with more detail.
Debrief Performance Report
- Added a new chart to show cumulative Net Profit over time so that you can better visualize business rankings.
Scoring
- Scoring method is now displayed in more detail when using Share Price as the primary scoring metric. Clarifies that the actual score is based on Market Cap divided by Number of Shares. (Share Price is not used for the score because shares can be diluted with equity financing.)
Sep 2021
Tutorial Quiz
- Refreshed all the questions and answers.
- Students will see correct answers at end of quiz (previously students were not seeing correct answers).
QuickStarts
- Improved organization of QuickStart categories.
Miscellaneous
- Fixed a minor issue where an insufficient funds message was being incorrectly displayed when changing HR Salaries.
Aug 2021
QuickStarts
- The QuickStart selection page is now simplified.
- New QuickStarts continue to be added as they are created.
Jul 2021
End-of-Period News
- A fun animated news report will now appear announcing the results of each period. The news report will build anticipation and excitement.
Market Maps
- Custom market maps can now be used with each simulation.
Budget Information
- Past and present budget numbers are now available under help (?) from the Company Cash box and the Cash Flow, Budget, & Accounts Receivable report.
Loans
- Cleaned up some inconsistencies with how loans were being shown on the Balance Sheet.
Saves
- When a player saves their decisions, visuals and sounds have been enhanced to further emphasize if a save was successful or not. Saves are not successful when the player has not made all the required decisions for the period.
Achievements
- A new screen now appears when the Achievement icons on the smartphone are clicked. This makes the achievements more prominent.
Jan & Feb 2021
Miscellaneous
- A number of small updates have been made.
Dec 2020
New Interface, No Adobe Flash
- The features of the game have not changed, only the interface has changed. You may continue using the interface you are currently using — you will not be forced to use the new interface at this time. You can switch between the new and old interfaces at any time because the game works the same regardless of which interface you choose.
- The new interface does not use Flash and will work on all browsers, including Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and more. Works on Windows/Mac/Linux computers, Chromebooks, and tablets. The OLD interface uses Flash and most browsers will soon not allow you to use Flash.
- There are no changes to the simplified Non-English and Accessible interface, which is the same interface used for smartphones. The new interface includes Google Translate so you do not have to use the simplified interface for non-English languages — the simplified interface is only needed for smartphones.
- While there have been no feature changes with the new interface, there are minor text changes to the Advertising module media options: Television is now TV & Video; Radio is now Radio, Music, Podcast; Email & Mobile is now Email; Internet is now Social Media. These are text changes only and do not affect scoring.
Jul 2020
Accessibility
- The current mobile interface has been upgraded to make it fully accessible for people with disabilities, including the use of screen readers.
Simplified Signup Form
- Signing up to GoVenture no longer requires an Address, State/Province, or Telephone Number. This reduces the personal information needed to play GoVenture to just Name, Email, Country, and School/Organization.
Mar 2020
Rubric Report Upgrades
- Students may now view their own Rubric Report scores (but not that of other students) by clicking a link near the top of the Performance Report. Previously, the Rubric Report was only visible to instructors (simulation managers).
- The balanced scoring method that used 10 metrics has been renamed the RESULTS Score. One of the 10 metrics has changed with PROFIT MARGIN being a new metric that replaces RANK. The reason for this change is because, for most simulations, RANK is the same as PROFIT so PROFIT influence would be applied twice; and PROFIT MARGIN is a good measurement of success to include.
- The RUBRIC scoring formula now includes the option to add the HR Score and ETHICS Score as significant metrics, making it easier to score based on a triple bottom line.
- The RUBRIC scoring formula set by the instructor is now saved in the report and will appear whenever the report is viewed by students or the instructor.
Feb 2020
Account Renamed
- Property, Plant, Equipment has been renamed to Property, Equipment, Startup to make the term more versatile.
Dec 2019
Ethics
- The consequences of weak ethics is now more frequent and severe than it had been previously. Specifically, the probability of a lawsuit has increased so that it will trigger sooner and the settlement fine increased to wipe out any previous gains (and sometimes even more).
Description of Reports
- The text description of the reports available to instructors have been improved to better describe the key data in each report and how it can be used. Descriptions also note which reports are available to students versus only available to instructors.
Accrual Accounting
- A number of new features and settings for instructors focused on teaching accounting. Includes Income Tax, Payroll Tax, Depreciation & Amortization, HR Costs as Cost of Goods, Accounts Receivable, Receivables Aging, Bad Debt. Spreadsheet-based activities where students build financial statements and conduct ratio analysis were added previously. Accounting videos added previously.
Sep 2019
Accounting Videos
- More than 35 accounting videos are now available for students to learn accounting terminology and principles.
Aug 2019
Financial Reports
- The Simulation Manager (Instructor) can now view Financial Reports for student businesses. This includes Balance Sheet, P&L, GL, GJ, and others.
Financial Statements Activity
- An Excel spreadsheet is available for instructors to assign to students as a supplemental learning activity. The spreadsheet requires a student to build a Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement using the General Ledger of the business played in the GoVenture CEO simulation. Once completed, the student can save and submit the Excel spreadsheet to the instructor to validate completion of the activity. Details are available in the Assessment Strategies document linked from the INSTRUCTOR GUIDE.
Computer-Run Businesses
- Improvements made to the logic behind the computer-run businesses so that they make better decisions and are somewhat more challenging to play against.
Market Reports Now Show Multi-Option R&D Preferences
- When an R&D choice is set to multiple options, the consumer preferences were shown in a single table, but now they are also shown as a pie chart for easier analysis.
Price Discount Advertising More Effective
- Investing money in Price Discount Advertising now has a slightly higher effect on generating new sales.
Jul 2019
- Sales & Marketing Investments Combined — On the Sales & Marketing screen, students previously had to decide how much money to invest in Product Line & Brand Advertising and Sales Promotion separately. To simplify this, the two investment options have been combined into one Sales & Marketing investment, automatically divided evenly between the two.
- Advertising Mix Settings Default to 0% — Students set the percentage of their advertising budget across 10 media options, which previously defaulted to 10% each (totaling 100%). Defaults are now 0% for all, forcing students to make their own choices that add up to 100%.
- Performance Report on Smartphones — The display of the Performance Report has been improved on small-screen devices like smartphones.
- All Reports Can Now Be Turned On or Off — Instructors can now choose to show (ON) or hide (OFF) all reports viewed by students. This setting is available when creating or editing a simulation.
- Loans and Stock Issues Included on Performance Debrief Report — This information was missing from the Debrief report, but now added.
- Google Translate Added to Reports — All student and instructor reports now have machine translation integrated, offering over 100 languages.
- General Ledger and Journal Upgraded — The General Ledger and General Journal reports now include more detail to make GoVenture CEO more versatile for accounting and finance courses.
Jun 2019
Ratio Analysis Activity
- An Excel spreadsheet is available for instructors to assign to students as a supplemental learning activity. The spreadsheet requires a student to build a Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement using numbers from the business played in the GoVenture CEO simulation. The student must then use those numbers to complete a number of financial ratios. Details are available in the Assessment Strategies document linked from the INSTRUCTOR GUIDE.
Apr 2019
Team Evaluation Now Includes Points Points are now included in the Team Evaluation as an alternative scoring method:
- 1.5 points for Great
- 1.0 points for Good
- 0 points for Not Good or Don't Know
Nov 2019
Assessment Strategies Document
- A new document is available for instructors that presents best practices and options for assessment and grading. Also includes new Student Experience Report activity. The document is available in the INSTRUCTOR GUIDE.
Student Onboarding Best Practice
- A new document is available for instructors that presents best practices and options for onboarding students to GoVenture CEO. The document is available in the INSTRUCTOR GUIDE.
Apr 2018
Learning Guide & Activity Book
- A helpful new resource is now available for students and instructors who use the GoVenture CEO simulation. The Learning Guide & Activity Book helps you learn the fundamental concepts of business as they are applied in the GoVenture CEO simulation.
- The 160-page Guide is easy to read with large text and lots of examples to make fundamental business concepts easy to understand. Use it as a reference for topics you need help with, or read it from cover to cover to gain practical business wisdom.
- To access the Guide, log in to the GoVenture CEO website and look for the Guide in the yellow Tutorials & Guides tile. You may have to REFRESH your browser to see the new document.
Aug 2017
Works on Tablets and Smartphones
- We created a new mobile interface, allowing you to play on a tablet or smartphone. The game plays in the Internet browser and there is no app to download. We still recommend that the game be played on a computer or Chromebook for the richest learning experience, but the mobile option is very convenient when on the go.
New Languages
- Google Translate is integrated in the new mobile interface, allowing you to play the game in over 100 languages.
Production Replaces Manufacturing
- GoVenture CEO is increasingly used to play service-based simulations, so we have replaced all references of the word "manufacturing" with "production." This provides simulation managers with more versatility to create custom simulations. To clarify, the functionality has NOT changed at all, only the words have been changed.
Competency Quiz
- Instructors will be able to turn off individual business modules so that they are not included in the Competency Quiz. This allows instructors to create shorter or more targeted quizzes.
Oct 2016
Competency Quiz
- A personalized quiz for each student that combines business theory questions with data questions that require students to gather answers from their actual simulation results. Find this feature in the Performance Quizzes tile.
Multiple Currencies
- Each of the three territories can now have a different currency and instructors can control how exchange rates fluctuate from start to end of a simulation. New Quickstarts are available with multiple currencies or create your own.
Cost to Enter Territory
- Each new territory can now have a different cost to enter the market.
Rubric Report
- Now allows you to generate a score that combines the Rubric Score, Performance Score, and Participation Score (Saves Made).
Player-Advanced Report
- Displays results for multiple Player-Advanced simulations in one report. Find this under All Reports.
Nonprofit QuickStart
- We have created a nonprofit business model and added it to the QuickStarts. Look for NONPROFIT Gotham City.
Jul 2016
Inventory Allocation
- Simulations with multiple territories now require players to choose how much product inventory to allocate to each territory. Players choose inventory allocation by using the dropdown boxes that appear over each territory. All dropdowns must add up to 100%. Prior to this new feature, players had no control over inventory allocation by territory. Manufactured product inventory was automatically allocated. For more information about this new feature, review the USER GUIDE Section 3.12.
Jul 2015
QuickStarts
- The QuickStart selection screen has been simplified to make it even faster to choose and launch a new simulation.
Mergers & Acquisitions
- Combine the results of individual businesses, similar to how businesses might be combined in the real world of business. Access this feature in the ACTIONS tile.
Conglomerates
- Players can manage separate businesses in different industries (Simulation Competitions) to model multiple product lines, subsidiaries, or lines of business. Access this feature in the ACTIONS tile.
Historical Results
- Simulation Managers (Instructors) now have access to historical Performance Reports for all periods and businesses.
Financial Reports
- The Balance Sheet and P&L have new graphics to help students better understand financial reports. More LOAN details have also been added.
Share Report
- Share your Simulation Manager (Instructor) reports to make it easy to collaborate with co-instructors and teaching assistants.
Sep 2014
New Tutorial Videos Two new tutorial videos are now available for students (and instructors):
- Basic Business Strategy (6 min)
- Product Pricing (4 min)
We discovered that some students find these topics particularly challenging, so we created these tutorial videos to help. Both videos are available in the User Guide.
Apr 2014
Team Evaluation
- The TEAM EVALUATION feature allows you to easily conduct peer assessments. Students playing business simulations in teams can evaluate each other using a brief and well-designed 10-question form. All results are automatically collected and summarized for instructors.
- Find out more about this feature and try it out by logging in to GoVenture CEO and scrolling down to the Performance Quizzes box in the white Manage Tile.