practice of downloading individual programs from a crowdsourced or curated app store becoming the predominant mode of software distribution. It continues in some cases with bundled or pre-installed software, where many extra programs of dubious quality and functionality are included with a piece of hardware. Shovelware video games Low-budget, poor-quality video games, released in the hopes of being purchased by unsuspecting customers, are often referred to as "shovelware". This can lead to discoverability issues when a platform has no type of quality control. Several well-known examples were released for the Wii, including ports of PlayStation 2 games which had previously only been released in Europe. Video games such as Ninjabread Man, Anubis II, Myth Makers: Trixie in Toyland, and Rock 'n' Roll Adventures, designed by Data Design Interactive have gained infamy for using the exact same gameplay, just with different level designs and textures. Shovelware video games often have a negative reception from critics and gamers. Blast! Entertainment Ltd., a defunct video game developer and publisher, are known for releasing licensed shovelware games based on movies, television shows and books such as An American Tail, Beverly Hills Cop, Casper and the Ghostly Trio, Jumanji, and Lassie to name a few which would all receive negative reception among their respective fans and critics. Phoenix Games, a former European publisher, is known for its line of value priced titles for the Playstation 2, Wii, DS, and PC many of which are poorly based on popular properties and offer very little in terms of actual gameplay. Instead, they've been reviewed by numerous gamers and critics as cheaply made short animated films. Asset flips are a type of shovelware that largely or entirely use pre-made assets in order to release games en masse. Called "fake" games by Valve Corporation, 173 were removed from Steam in one 2017 purge that included several sock puppets of Silicon Echo Studios. See also Freeware Pre-installed software Product bundling Software bloat Unwanted software bundling Video game crash of 1983 References External links Archive of CD-ROM compilations at Textfiles.com Alistair B. Fraser on Academic Shovelware Wired: On Wii Shovelware PC World: Make your new PC hassle free Software distribution Bundled products or services Computer jargon Criticisms of software and websites