[1] The game revolves around seven trade companies including the player and other companies such as Vandergriff, Hoffmeister and Puffer Inc. as they compete to build an empire by investing in larger ships, buying warehouses, outmaneuvering each other and transporting essential commodities such as Kryptoons, cantaloupes, hair tonic, polyester, frog legs, umbrellas and Oggle Sand between the seven planets in the Kukubian empire led by Emperor Dred Nicholson.

The pair met as college students and were pursuing their respective careers in Japan in 1992: Kokubo in film and finance and Hoffman working at Sega headquarters in Tokyo.

[11] Although Hoffman claimed Gazillionaire was technically outdated upon completion, he said the publisher quickly agreed to the partnership after its quality assurance team had fallen in love with it.

[9][10][12] The president of Spectrum Holobyte also informed Hoffman that its next big release, Star Trek: The Next Generation – A Final Unity, had been delayed to the following calendar year and that it needed a replacement to book revenue for the close of 1994 to prevent its stock price from dropping.

[4][9][13] Gazillionaire proved popular as an educational video game and in the years following its launch it was adopted by various grade schools and universities as part of economic curriculums and by certain prisons to help reform convicts.

In addition to numerous gameplay improvements and added Windows 95 compatibility, it had a play-by-email mechanic for up to six people alongside to the hotseat multiplayer from the original game.