What Is Shovelware in Gaming?

Ever bought a game only to discover you've wasted your money? You may have bought shovelware; here's how to spot it.

So, you're casually perusing your favorite games store, and you spot heaps of games that are super cheap or have amazing discounts applied. Or a bundle of 25 games for $2.99. Thinking you're on to a great deal, you buy several of them, only to discover they're absolutely woeful when you fire them up.

You may have just purchased some shovelware. Here's what shovelware is and how to spot it so you don't feel ripped-off.

What Is Shovelware?

In order to help you spot and avoid shovelware, you need to know exactly what it is. There are several definitions of the term, but most of them err in the same direction. In general, we would say that shovelware is any game that a developer releases that lacks the polish of a finished game.

Shovelware games might have awful graphics, or loads of game-breaking bugs. They might have a terrible (or no) storyline, or only have one or two (or zero, even) elements that mean you can describe them as a 'game' in the first place.

In essence, a shovelware title is going to play, look, and sound bad. It will be of incredibly inferior quality and offer little to no value to the buyer. Much of the time, they are collections of pointless mini-games thrown together under one title. However, plenty of standalone games count as shovelware, too.

Finally, many shovelware games developers intend to dupe the inexperienced gamer. Getting 25 games for the price of one has to be a great deal, right? Erm... no. Wrong.

What Are Some Examples of Shovelware?

Unfortunately, there is quite a lot of shovelware out there. Having a few examples of what constitutes shovelware will help you swerve it and ensure you're not paying out for a low-quality title.

One excellent example would be software collections that manufacturers would often bundle with a PC, either already installed onto the device or on separate media storage and normally called something super-generic, like 1,001 Games Collection.

Either way, most (if not all) of this would be shovelware and, thinking about it, this writer's first PC came with myriad CD-Roms featuring hundreds of absolutely appalling games, so he knows firsthand that it exists.

Shovelware has also been a problem for Nintendo since the OG Wii. While the console has some amazing titles (obviously), the new fad of Nintendo's motion controllers meant developers jumped on the bandwagon, attempting to cash in on the new control method.

This resulted in games like Go Play Lumberjacks and Cruise Ship Vacation Games; both collections of really awful mini-games (cutting a log in half by shaking the Wii controller around DOES NOT make a game). The problem persists with the Switch eShop.

It isn't just Nintendo that suffers the plight of shovelware. PlayStation and Xbox feature shovelware, and it's difficult to spot, at times. An example from both systems would be the Outbreak games. These are clearly Resident Evil rip-offs, and they don't even look like PS5 games; they've got the graphics of a low-end PS2 title, at best.

Likewise, the Steam marketplace is littered with low-quality shovelware games. For example, a quick scan through the first page of the Upcoming page at Steampowered.com throws up a beauty titled Searching for objects in the forest. Can you guess what you have to do in this game? Find items on the screen. Shovelware!

Shovelware isn't just limited to the games themselves. We could consider some consoles to be shovelware, like anything Souljaboy might come up with...

Related: Why the Wii U Really Failed, and How Nintendo Bounced back

How to Spot Shovelware

Most of the time, shovelware is easy to spot. Looking through your favorite digital gaming store on your Switch, PlayStation, or Xbox, and you'll be able to spot the shovelware a mile off.

Let's go back to the Outbreak example. As we mentioned, these games look awful and (probably) don't play very well either. They look low budget and that is because they are. In the case of the PS5, the developers are attempting to capitalize on the fairly unpopulated PS5 library by releasing a game that doesn't even belong on any system from the past 15 years, nevermind a new-gen console.

The Outbreak games are around $10-15 each. There is no justification for this price; the developers have regurgitated a Resident Evil game, and somehow made it worse than the original RE title rather than improve on it somehow. Thus, it is shovelware.

Essentially, a shovelware title will probably be:

• An unheard-of title that is very expensive.
• An unheard-of title that is very expensive but has a massive discount (98% discount on the Nintendo eShop is one way shovelware purveyors will try to dupe you).
• An unheard-of title that is incredibly cheap, even without a discount.
• A collection of terrible mini games that are bundled together and sold at a cheap price.
• A title based on a franchise/celebrity endorsement and designed for a highly specific target market (Shawn Johnson Gymnastics, anyone?)
• Not even a game at all (like the $10 Infrared Security app you can buy on the Switch store...).

If you are struggling to spot shovelware, then you'll need to take further action to avoid it altogether.

Related: The Worst Games Consoles of All Time

How to Avoid Shovelware

Even if you're unsure about a title's shovelware status, you can avoid it by checking:

• Existing reviews of the game on reputable websites.
• Existing reviews of the title by other gamers on the store.
• The game description (tardy shovelware developers spend as little time on their game descriptions as they do their games; you'll be able to spot spelling mistakes or terrible descriptions that make little or no sense, or don't describe the game properly).
• Screenshots and videos. Does it look like someone crafted it all on MS Paint? It is probably shovelware, then.

If you check these criteria before spending your cash, you'll find it easier to avoid shovelware altogether. While it's hard to spot a shovelware game or games collection, knowing what you're looking for is a brilliant start.

Just remember the old idiom; if it is too good to be true, it probably is. Would you really expect a collection of 30 games to cost as little as a few dollars? Of course not, in which case you're buying shovelware and the developer is ripping you off.

Say No to Shovelware

If you've spotted a game and you're not sure whether or not it is shovelware, then you should do your research before parting with your cash. If you don't, you'll only end up buying Charm Girls Club Pajama Party, and nobody wants that in their collection.

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