DProject: I've wondered, who the hell actually buys and plays these types of games? I mean, a buck or two to satisfy a certain curiosity, I guess I can get, but for full retail price? "Damn, my biggest fantasy has always been chopping wood - thanks to Woodcutter Simulator, I finally can!" And if Surgery Simulation 2011 is nothing like Surgeon Simulator 2013, then that probably sucks too. And what about games such as the one where you clean dirt from the streets? That just SCREAMS fun!
Is it a conspiracy to get people to try mundane tasks virtually, so that they could be persuaded to do the same in real life? I don't see any other explanation in order to justify a game such as "Road Construction Simulator". Oh wait, it's the 2011 edition, I bet the 2012 one is much more realistic!
PaterAlf: Even as a German (where these kind of simulations are really big) I wonder the same. Sure, I might pay $5 to get the bundle and play Ski Park Tycoon, Surgery Simulator 2011, Hunter's Trophy 2 and maybe even Police Force (which seems to be so notoriously bad that it's fun again). But $20 for Woodcutter Simulator or
Digger Simulator? It's unbelievable!
There are a few financial successes (Euro Truck Simulator, Landwirtschafts-Simulator, not to be confused with the deliberately misleading and appallingly bad Agrarsimulator, which was also included in a recent Bundle Stars bundle), but the vast majority of them are financial failures, which is why they're in countless bundles to begin with.
It's not the success that drives publishers to keep knocking these turds out, but rather the ease in developing them. They have simple game structures, can use stock assets, don't require any kind of performance capture, and unlike traditional casual titles like gem matchers or hidden object games, can be marketed with relative ease as being a 'hardcore' title. The engines underlying the games are usually cheap efforts bought in or hastily knocked-together efforts that barely work on any machine.
The lead time for these games is usually no more than 3-4 months - including physical media pressing - and they usually reach profitability with just five-digit sales.
