Guides · · 4 min read
Big shares: own part of a Sliema hotel, or run a restaurant
The richest players on the island had a problem: nothing big left to buy. So now you can buy shares in a game business that's bigger than any one stall. In Malta Living, the free life sim you play in your browser, the Invest app has a new dark and gold box, Big shares: a boutique hotel in Sliema and a restaurant on the water at Spinola Bay, each cut into 1,000 shares. Anyone can start with one share. Whoever holds the most, and at least 250, runs the place.
How shares work
The Big shares page opens with three lines, because many players learn money here:
- A business is cut into 1,000 equal shares. Each share gets the same slice of each day's money.
- Whoever owns the most shares, and at least 250, runs it.
- Nobody can own more than 400, so others can always buy in, or try to buy past you.
A share costs the business's price divided by 1,000. The hotel is €1,500 a share and the restaurant €300, in game euros. A third business, Portomaso Yacht Charters, is on the page too: it launches with the yachts.
Buying from the house
Tap a business and you see its ladder: a bar of the 1,000 shares, yours in green, other players' in blue, and what the house still sells in grey. The gold mark at 250 is enough to run it, if you're the biggest. The red mark at 400 is the most one account can hold. Under it, chips for 1, 10, 50 or 100 shares (or the pencil for any number), and a line that says what they make on a normal day and how far you are from running it: "These 10 make about €16–€32 a day. With 250 you'd run it: 240 more." Then one blue button.
In a business's first week, nobody can hold more than 100, so nobody runs it on day one and everyone gets a fair start.
The moment you take control
Buy past 250, and past everyone else, and the screen goes gold: YOU RUN IT, with confetti. Every other holder gets a note in Messages ("@ana runs the restaurant now"). A tie stays with whoever got there first, and nobody can run more than two big businesses.
Running it comes with a view of how safe you are. If the next biggest holder has 300 and you have 360, the page says so: sell more than 60 and they run it. Topping up to 400 makes you untouchable, because nobody can hold more.
You also make one call a week, and every holder shares the result. At the restaurant: a summer menu push (busier, but more bad days), keep it steady, wine-pairing nights (better on weekends), or fix up the terrace (steadier, a little less). The hotel has its own four. The call counts from the next 18:00 and holds until Monday. And once a week there's the owner's table: take a friend to dinner at the place you run, on the house, and you both leave with more Fun and Social.
Payday at 18:00
Shares pay with every other investment, every evening at 18:00. The whole business has one day's takings, the same for every holder, and each share gets a thousandth of it, in whole cents rounded down. The investment tax comes off, as it does for your businesses, property and cabs, and each business gets one line in the Bank, like "Restaurant shares · 50 of 1,000 · the day €2,368". Some days go wrong: a storm shuts the terrace, a pipe bursts at the hotel. A bad day's loss is shared by every holder too, and it's never taxed. Winter is quieter: November to March, the hotel makes less, and so does the restaurant.
Want out? Sell back to the house at once for 85% of what you paid, the same as a business. Shares belong to your account, count in your worth at the Bank, and stay yours if you start a new life.
What's next
This is the first of three steps. Next, players will be able to list shares for each other at their own price, within a fair band. After that come takeover bids: a 24-hour race where anyone can offer the holders more to take a business from whoever runs it. New to investing in the game? The Invest app guide shows where everything is, Earn is the quickest way to your first €300, and the Malta life simulator guide covers the whole island. If you want the real-world idea behind it, a share is a slice of a company's ownership (Wikipedia: share (finance)).
Questions people ask
Can I lose money on big shares?
A bad day takes a little from every holder, and selling back gets you 85% of what you paid. On most days a share makes money, but it's a game investment with game risks.
What do I get for running a business?
One call a week that every holder shares, a free dinner with a friend once a week at the owner's table, and your name on the ladder. There's no extra money for running it: you earn what your shares earn, like everyone else.
Why can't I buy more than 100 shares?
Each business's first 7 days cap every account at 100, so nobody runs it on day one. After that, the cap is 400.
Do I need 250 shares to earn?
No. Every share earns the same slice from the first 18:00 after you buy it. 250, and the most of anyone, is only what it takes to run the place.
