In 2008, Crave Entertainment published PBR: Out of the Chute on Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 2. The bull riding simulator was reviewed poorly at the few sites that actually covered it, and the late PS2 release was quickly forgotten. Just another bad game. But one copy of this long-forgotten game is sitting in a Walmart in Delaware, still wrapped in plastic and waiting to find a home.
Last week, Reddit user KingTRoss shared on the PS2 subreddit that they had discovered an unsold copy of PBR: Out of the Chute at Walmart. It was still in shrink wrap, sported an old Walmart price tag of $15 that was starting to peel off, and was hidden among newer PS5 and PS4 games like a little Easter egg from the past waiting to be found.
“Went looking in the game section at my local Walmart and found a PS2 game in the locked cabinet, unfortunately not a game I’ve been looking for, but almost tried to buy for the hell of it, cool to see the old price sticker as well,” shared KingTRoss on Reddit.
On Tuesday, I spotted this post, chuckled, and shared it with others at Kotaku in our Slack chat. As my coworkers talked about the odd discovery and some wondered if it was real or a prank, I started looking around to see how common it is for PS2 games to be found in Walmart and other big box stores. Turns out it’s not as rare as you might think, with users sharing photos of unsold PS2, PSP, and PS3 games still lingering on shelves like retail zombies hiding in various stores across the United States.
Then I stumbled upon a post from January from DiviniusMoogle on the PlayStation subreddit. They had also found a copy of PBR: Out of the Chute for PS2 at their local Walmart. “Weird!” I thought to myself. Then I noticed that the stickers on the game case matched up perfectly with the stickers on the other copy of PBR, and I realized that, wait, these might be the same game?
So I contacted both Reddit users and independently asked them where their local Walmarts were located. Both of them told me Delaware, seemingly confirming that the game seen in both posts is the same. It appears that nobody wants to buy PBR: Out of the Chute. When I shared this revelation with KingTRoss, they replied: “Small world!!”
Interestingly, it also looks like this old PS2 game is getting shuffled around at this Walmart located in Delaware. In the photo from January, PBR is contained in a hard plastic case and is sitting out in the open. In KingTRoss’s latest photo, the game has been removed from the plastic case and put behind plexiglass with PS5 and PS4 games and accessories. Maybe an employee at that location is trying to help the game get sold. Trying to help it find a home after nearly 20 years of waiting. And it might not have to wait long. Both users seem interested in returning to Walmart to check on the game and perhaps even buy it. So this story might have a happy ending after all.
