Shovelware

It first appeared in the early 1990s when large amounts of shareware demo programs were copied onto CD-ROMs and advertised in magazines or sold at computer flea markets.

The prevalence of shovelware has decreased due to the practice of downloading individual programs from a crowdsourced or curated app store becoming the predominant mode of software distribution.

[citation needed] Another defunct European publisher, Phoenix Games, was known for its line of value-priced titles for the PlayStation 2, Wii, DS, and PC.

Their games Ninjabread Man, Anubis II, Rock 'n' Roll Adventures, and Myth Makers: Trixie in Toyland all used the exact same gameplay and level layouts, but changed the art and character design to make them appear to be unique properties.

Called fake games by Valve Corporation, 173 were removed from Steam in one 2017 purge that included several sock puppets of Silicon Echo Studios.