The Marketplace Live game: ILS web business simulations for classrooms

Innovative Learning Solutions began building web-based learning tools for business schools and business professionals in 2000. In that year it released its first fully web-based business simulation, which needed no downloads or installation. In January 2009 it followed with a web simulation that added multimedia content and a 3D environment. The company is based in Knoxville, Tennessee, where its Marketplace Simulation Processing Center is housed in the Digital Crossing complex.

ILS says that learning by doing in a simulated environment improves retention, and it offers free round-the-clock support to registered instructors.

Marketplace is a business strategy game, and in 2010 it was a family of 19 online simulations for undergraduates, graduates and executives. Each was designed for specific courses in marketing, business management, business policy, strategic management, new ventures, e-commerce, supply chain management and international management. ILS reported use by more than 150,000 people in 360 business schools and 180 corporations in 35 countries.

Marketplace Live was introduced as the visually richer successor. It brought a new interface, multimedia content, a realistic 3D environment and built-in tools for real-time team collaboration. In the Marketplace Live game, students form new venture firms in the introductory stage of the microcomputer industry, with several international regions as markets. No established companies exist, and every team starts with the same resources.

Nine simulations were available in the new version in 2010: Introduction to Marketing, Business Fundamentals, Introduction to Business and Strategy, Venture Strategy, Strategic Management, Strategic E-Commerce, International Corporate Management, Strategic Corporate Management and Integrated Business Management. ILS was upgrading the rest of the older Web Marketplace line to the new platform.

The old sites have moved. The address marketplace-live.com forwards to marketplace-simulation.com, and the ILS company address ilsworld.com forwards to the same place. The current features of the Marketplace Live game, its availability for new courses and its pricing were not confirmed on a page that could be read in November 2026, so its status is listed as unconfirmed.

Other business and management simulations with checked statuses are in the games directory, and PRACTICE Marketing covers a comparable multiplayer marketing game.