What is the Pile of Shame? We explain the term

Sale promotions and free giveaways have long been commonplace in gaming. Because of this overwhelmingly large offer, gamers often talk about the Pile of Shame on their own hard drive. We clarify what this means.

Simply buy: The Pile of Shame is a result of today's market mechanisms.

Not least because of digitalization, games have a much shorter path to the end customer than their physical predecessors. This inevitably affects behavior within the gaming culture.

Pile of Shame: That's what the cult term stands for

Literally translated, the Pile of Shame means the pile of shame. And that is also correct in meaning, although usually with a humorous note:

• The term comes from gaming culture and describes the often large number of games that have been purchased but never played.
• This is a relatively modern phenomenon, as the selection is huge and there are constantly discount promotions or even free offers thanks to the quite a few retailers.
• On platforms such as Steam, it is thus not uncommon for a single player to own many hundreds of titles. However, it is hardly possible in terms of time to play them all - yet new games are bought at the next opportunity.

The large collections are therefore often seen as a symbol of an irresistible urge to buy, which is not necessarily considered desirable. Efforts to work off the Pile of Shame before buying new games are therefore not uncommon, even if the old patterns can usually not be switched off permanently.