'The hunting genre was because of Wal-Mart:' Doom dev John Romero says the entire category was created to appease one Texan executive

A red dear stag waits to be fed by tourists visiting a car park near Glen Coe on December 1, 2017 in Glen Coe,Scotland. On the first day of the meteorological calendar, the UK was experiencing slightly warmer temperatures today with weather forecasters indicating that the recent cold spell is almost over. Yesterday's snow across eastern parts of England is expected to melt away over the course Friday as temperatures start to rise. .

In the latest episode of Nightdive Studios' podcast series, legendary FPS developer John Romero came on to talk about the industry, past and present. He ended with a surreal anecdote about the inception of the Deer Hunter series, and thus hunting sims as we know them.

"Back in the '90s, Wal-Mart had a ton of power in the industry, because tons of people went to Wal-Mart to buy their games⁠—physical games, in boxes and everything," said Romero. And to get to Wal-Mart, you had to go through GT Interactive.