The flood of retail simulators on Steam is nothing new: the trend seemed to land with torrential force in late 2024. But it's fascinating, to me at least, how many of these things are still being released every week, and how many of them seem to actually reach an audience despite their rudimentary appearance.
Last week, 14 retail sims were released on Steam. I'm being pretty picky with what I class a "retail sim" too. If it's an idle game with a retail or service industry theme, it's not included. If it's a horror game with a retail setting—and there are tons of these, including this week's Shift at Midnight—they're not included either. If it's a puzzle game with retail or service industry themes, like Nothing To Declare, I'm not including it.
No, I'm talking about those unfailingly first-person retail sims that extremely prolific Polish publisher PlayWay seemed to spawn into existence, and which have been copied relentlessly since (including by PlayWay itself). You probably know what I'm talking about: you unpack boxes, operate checkouts, purchase and receive stock. They all kinda look the same. Many are se...
English (US)