On September 15, Hard Shark Games simultaneously released 29 games on Steam, spanning genres such as racing, retail simulation, survival horror, sports, flight simulation, and 2D platformers. All 29 titles are in Early Access, with both the developer and publisher listed as Hard Shark Games.
The Early Access games released by the company in September used identical introductory descriptions, all stating a desire to involve the community from the very beginning of the project. This is not the first time such practices have appeared; some games centrally released by Hard Shark Games on March 4, 2025, also employed the same description, including Speedboat Simulator and Toy Battlefield: Shooter Survival.
Update announcements for certain titles were also strikingly similar. The patch notes for Starship Fighter, Air Combat, and Angry Streets were completely identical, all claiming optimizations to multiple core systems that could improve overall performance during extended play sessions by up to 10%. These three announcements were published on March 5, 2025, within less than five minutes of each other.
Steam charges a $100 listing fee per game, which is refunded once the product generates over $1,000 in revenue. Based on this, the total listing fee for 29 games amounts to $2,900. The relevant store pages only disclosed the use of generative content for capsule artwork, without providing similar disclosures for other aspects of development.
Using the Boxleiter method, which estimates sales based on public Steam review counts, the estimated revenue for Supermarket Life Simulator ranges from $295 to $885, for Billiards from $926 to $2,780, and for F1 Simulator from $562 to $1,686. Five days after release, the combined low-end estimates for these three games total $1,783, exceeding half of the listing fees for 29 titles; if closer to the high-end estimates, the combined revenue would surpass $2,900.
The above calculations do not account for development costs. Supermarket Life Simulator utilized the Unity asset "Checkout Craze: Convenience Store Simulator," priced at $50, and identical product assets can be found in the promotional images of both. Consequently, some Steam users have accused the title of being a mere reskin of an asset template, though this remains an allegation within user reviews.
Hard Shark Games currently has 217 entries on Steam, comprising 121 games and 96 demos. Its highest concurrent player count record stands at 13 players, achieved by the now-removed Supermarket Simulator Professional Edition Demo. Although the player base for individual titles is limited, the revenue generated from mass releases may still cover a significant portion of the listing fees.