The Budget PC Section: Not just for Bejeweled Clones Anymore?

Recently, I was in a local Target store with my friend to get some Xbox points cards for Marvel vs Capcom 2 and some Mtn. Dew Game Fuel (Because we like the taste.) Now normally, the PC section of a store like target is usually sad and pathetic, and it was in this case. Looking past the 5 year old Star Wars games and the Blizzard Battle Chests, I found myself in the budget section. You know what I mean. Nice little rows of jewel cases of garbage like Diner Dash and Jewel Quest, along with some weird point-and-click adventure games that are probably made by Eastern Europeans. All for around $10.

However, in this particular instance, I happened to notice that there were a lot of awesome obscure PC strategy games in this section instead, and most of them were fairly new as well. Galactic Civilizations II, for example, came out in 2006 and is one of my favorite space strategy sims ever. Along with this, I also spotted Sid Meier's Pirates, Civilization III, and Disciples II Gold (which I purchased. It's pretty awesome). All of these are excellent Turn-Based strategy games from only a few years ago. My question? When did this all start happening? Why is Target suddenly an excellent place to pick up obscure strategy games? Why did my Xbox get an E-74?

These all seem to be signs of the apocalypse. Ready yourselves.