[4] Players need to send their minions to the world to complete missions and commit crimes in order to collect gold.

[7] The ultimate objective of the game's narrative campaign is to take over the world and deploy the weapon of mass destruction which would then prompt the Forces of Justice to surrender.

[7] Among the playable villains include a former spymaster Emma (voiced by Samantha Bond), tyrant and ex-henchman Red Ivan (Brian Blessed), the gold-fanatic industrialist Maximilian (Glen McCready), and the mad scientist Zalika (Rakie Ayola).

[8][9] Financial reports at the end of 2004 revealed Elixir Studios, the developer of the first Evil Genius, had begun work on a sequel.

While Rebellion purchased the intellectual property rights to Elixir's titles, the franchise remained dormant for several years aside from being re-released on digital platforms before the sudden 2010 release of the Facebook app Evil Genius: WMD, which took the IP and applied it to the FarmVille style of apps popular at the time.

[12] Similar to the original, Evil Genius Online maintained the idea of attaining power and building elaborate lairs and hiring minions, progressing using timed missions that could be sped up or bypassed with virtual currency.

[15] At E3 2019 Rebellion premiered the first trailer for the sequel, titled Evil Genius 2: World Domination, and stated that the game would be released on Steam sometime in 2020.