So, I must ask: how can people have such massive backlogs?

[emb]

Like others are saying, it takes a few seconds to buy something, and often takes 10s of hours to play them. After a while, buying becomes a proxy for the idealized fun you remember having with games. And I can still justify it by telling myself I'm a collector.

Lately I think of it less as "I intend to play all these" and more like "when I next want to play something, I have plenty of options". Not so much in my backlog, as they are ready to queue for the backlog.

 

[Frunkalicious]

Meh, I like having 3-5% of my library unplayed, even though that equates to 50-100 games. It's great to always have something new to pop in when I feel like it, and I mostly pay peanuts for games I don't play immediately anyway.

 

[Stronginthearm]

While I have a game backlog, I also have a book backlog. I can't read and play games at the same time! Plus I like replaying certain games, like Pokemon.

 

[FTF]

Impulse buying during sales...

Click to shrink...

It's 100% this for me.

 

[Gestault]

I think this "triple-combo" is the kiss of death:

- Strategically buy games when they're dirt-cheap (and constant window-shopping)
- Have broad genre interests
- Have limited free time/focus to actually play

 

[netprints]

I have kids.

 

[Crazy_KiD_169]

work and kids also wasted a lot of time playing destiny before kids. Lol

 

[Crayon]

You actually made me hungry for more backlog. Ima get out of bed and see if there's any sales.

 

[TylerDurden4321]

From the last decade this is how my backlog grew:
Steam Sales (when they were great)
PS+ (been collecting since it started on PS3, also claimed all Vita/PS4 titles so far)
Games with Gold (I got Xbox late in the gen so I got a couple of games out of this)
Humble Bundles (Oh man, I got way too many games from donating on these)
PS+ Sales (I won't lie, they sometimes get some good deals)
Black Friday (no brainer)
Retail Price Errors (based Wario64 looking out)
GameStop (B2G1 or sometimes B3G2)
Steam Keys (Sometime is insane how cheap you can get these)
Epic Game Store (I've claimed all of them since it started o_O)
Free Random GOG/Steam games
Day 1 games
and finally Gamepass

And don't even get me started with the classics, there's a lot I haven't even tried *stares at Prime Trilogy*...

Click to shrink...

Why the hell would you miss out on Twitch Prime games? ;))

 

[stephbm6]

I've been buying Xbox one & PS4 games lately because they're so cheap right now.

 

[Elementje]

Humble Bundle and PS+

 

[Deleted member 9035]

Finishing a game takes roughly 10 hours. Purchasing a game takes roughly a minute.
Many games are so cheap during sales it's ridiculous.
So people buy games and never play them, or barely play them.

 

[NoWayOut]

I buy lots of games I have passing interests in and no motivation to play them because I am mentally drained at the end of my work day. I have hundreds of games. Literally hundreds.

Click to shrink...

Me and you brother!

 

[denx]

Have you gamed on PC this last decade OP? 10 years of sales and bundles will make you have a backlog you have no hope of ever clearing.

 

[Deleted member 9035]

Sales, PS+ games, temporarily bored of a game, MP games taking up time.

Combine that with full time job, family, time with friends etc
It's not hard to understand that time isn't enough.

Click to shrink...

Get those kids workin' on your backlog!

 

[Roshin]

But assuming it isn't wrong, then how can people have such massive backlongs? Of dozens and dozens of games?

Click to shrink...

Dozens lol

 

[CRIMSON-XIII]

I am a diehard game fan but sometimes life gets in the way. I got Jedi Fallen Order at launch as a huge Star Wars fan. I still haven't played it because I want to rewatch The Clone Wars and see Season 7first beforehand, which I still have not seen as a huge star wars fan. Then I can feel like I would appreciate JFO the most. I told myself that I would wait on LOU2 until I finished Ghost of Tsushima as a huge open experience. I bought both as a hardcore Sony fan. I love LOU1. I love GoW, and Horizon. Beat them both back at launches. But I have yet to find the right time to play GoT and by extension of that I have not played LOU2 still.

The PS5 event was 2 weeks ago. I spent the last two weeks re-watching reactions to the epic FFXVI trailer, discussing it here and there, and watching anime. No gaming but a lot of game hype and youtube consumption regarding game information lmao.

Long story short. I want things to line up and for me to play things conveniently and comfortably. A backlog starts to build up. I am weird.

I got DMC5 in a sale and now see that a better version will come to PS5. I haven't played it yet so I may as well wait lmao. AC Valhalla is coming and please don't ask me to play more than the 40-50 hours i put into Odyssey and barely got anywhere haha. At least I beat Origins back then. I'll just skip Odyssey and go into Valhalla right away for my appreciation of the dark middle ages similar to the crusades era

My backlog consists of Jedi Fallen Order, LOU2, Ghost of Tsushima, DMC5, Borderlands 3, . LA Noire remastered from back then, I got Mafia remake just cause I love those GTA style gamaes.. Gotta play it soon...., Also, the Ni No Kuni replay from the remaster that was released on PS4, the actual play of NNK2..., and then NIer Automata when I finally play Nier Replicant next year. ,,,... Oh and I guess I technically have to try the Yakuza series. lol, It is definitely wild.

 

[Kayotix]

Sales plus not enough time...... I've gotten better about not buying games unless I know I'll actually sink serious time into them.

 

[Deleted member 25870]

I blame mostly service or lifestyle games. I let my PS+ expire earlier this year and in the 2 or 3 months I was "offline" I finished around 5 games through casual play. When there are those one or two games monopolizing my attention, when I want to hop on and play with friends, everything else ends up pushed aside. I didn't stop buying games or taking advantage of sales. It was always something I would play later.

I'm back online, but that 90 days or so was enough to break my GTA Online cycle and now I'm slowly working my way through my backlog. Though Genshin Impact is now a thing.

 

[Lion]

Let me begin by saying that backlog wasn't a word in my (granted limited) vocabulary at least until 2018~2019. And it was because of Era that this changed as I kept reading time after time variations of "it's in my backlog I'll play it someday"...

With this limitation in mind, I came to define backlog as: games that one's purchased and means to play someday, but didn't have the time. If that definition is a gross mistake, then this topic doesn't make any sense and was a mistake.

But assuming it isn't wrong, then how can people have such massive backlongs? Of dozens and dozens of games? Surely there is a time when people will stop buying new games if they own many that they have not played before?

I'm honestly curious. Did I make a gross mistake with my definition of backlog? Or do a lot of people simply love buying games?

Click to shrink...

I have (mostly) stopped buying games in sales. 2019-2014 I bought a lot of games in steam sales. Experience showed that I never got round to touching a lot of them, and I kind of backed out participating in steam sales.

I still buy a few games in PlayStation sales for the "future", but again I am learning some self control.

On the switch I seem to buy a lot more games on cartridge rather than digital. I buy games second hand when I see them drop to £30 or less. This means that I will often have several switch games sitting in the cupboard untouched. I save about 4 at the moment. The switch backlog always get addressed though, we do play these games. Switch is the main console used by my kids. I don't want to overwhelm them with choice, so I tend to hide games in a cupboard until they have finished whatever they are playing. (wish someone would do that for me!)

Gamepass, free games from epic & ps+ mean that I realistically will never not have a backlog!

I suspect that if you were to only buy games on release at full price, and were to only buy a new game once you have finished whatever you are playing then you would save money vs people who routinely buy "bargains" in sales.

 

[Rivo_Labrat]

I think this "triple-combo" is the kiss of death:

- Strategically buy games when they're dirt-cheap (and constant window-shopping)
- Have broad genre interests
- Have limited free time/focus to actually play

Click to shrink...

Now add gamepass and you have a perfect storm. You're buying games you don't have time to play because you keep installing gamepass games that you also don't have time to play🤪

 

[Leo]

I my case, I love retro games which basically expands my backlog absurdly. I have tons of SNES, GB, GBA and DS games I still want to play.

Besides that, I simply don't play fast enough to keep up with new games, I usually take at least 1-2 months to complete one game.

As for why I keep buying games, sometimes they are on sale, and sometimes I know they will become rare, so I buy them, that's why. I'll get to them someday, I always do, it isn't a waste of money.

 

[Spaceroast]

It's been said, but two words:

Steam Sales

That and there are some games that I somehow keep going back to and putting many more hours into, such as Dwarf Fortress, modded Minecraft, Dark Souls, and Mario Maker. Hell I've even spent a significant amount of time playing the endless supply of great Super Mario World romhacks over many newer games.

 

[Hzsn724]

Sales are the real bane of the backlog. I combat this by limiting how much I buy.

 

[The Shape]

I have a big backlog on PS4, but it's nothing compared to my backlog on steam, where I buy games on sale and never even install them. It's a sickness I think.

That's why I sold my Switch, I couldn't have another system like that.

 

[toastyToast]

Sometimes getting a game for cheap is about all the enjoyment I'll get out of it

Like I'll load them up and be like, "I actually had no intention of playing this."

Other times I'll play a game for about 20 minutes and think, "That was neat" and never play it again and feel completely satisfied.

Honestly if there were games that were a dedicated 1 hour experience of straight fire I couldn't even hate.

 

[denx]

Oh yeah, MP games is a big one for me. A lot of times I don't feel like investing on long single player campaigns, so I just play some quick rounds of Rocket League, CSGO or Titanfall 2 instead. Also Among Us has been eating a lot of my time lately.

And then you have sandbox games that are effectively endless, like Cities Skylines, Sea of Thieves, Minecraft, etc.

I think all of this makes me hesitant to start games with long single player campaigns. The only recent exception to this is Death Stranding, which I've been chirping away at since it released on PC (122 hours already).

 

[shintoki]

Poor impulse control + sales/bundles. Looked it up, I spent 1100$ on Steam since 2009. This does not include the Keys from other places, Humble Bundles, CDkeys I had, etc. With Humble, I'm probably around 200$ and CDKeys from elsewhere... maybe 200-300 as well.

i.e. I purchased the THQ bundle years back and played through 4 or 5 of the games at the time, but it came with 20. Humble Bundles are deadly for this, they use to include all the games on a single key. I have something like 440 games on Steam, played 120 of them, and 80 between 100 I will never play. These include the Public Test items, dead multiplayer parts, games from bundles I didn't want but stuck with, etc.

 

[Ain't Nobody]

Back when Humble Bundle was still good, I would buy all of them thinking it was stupid NOT to get like 15 games for 20 bucks.

 

[MadMod]

Endless games lead to this. If I play warzone too much, my backlog grows. Happened with fifa and apex too.

 

[martincrimson87]

PC gaming.

 

[Nostremitus]

Steam sales, humble bundles, PS+ and probably spending too much of my gaming time on Destiny 2

 

[John Dunbar]

step one: buy games
step two: never play games
step three: ????
step four: profit

 

[Siggy-P]

Honestly:

Some games just get dull or boring as I go on. And I give up to play at a later date when a new more interesting game comes out.

 

[bbq of doom]

By buying games on sale and then playing games you already have!

 

[eXistor]

I technically have a huge backlog, but I'm not worried. I actually do play those games eventually. If ever there's a gap in releases I'll just grab something off the pile. It's quite a nice "problem" to have as I'm never want for something.

 

[Wackamole]

Some people have a busy life (work, children, other hobbies, etc). Combine that with being easily distracted & unfocussed and being the king of Procrastination and you barely play games at all. My day begins with thinking about all the awesome things i can do and it ends with me being disappointed about myself because almost none of those things have actually been done.

I'm proud when i actually finish a game. Last one was TLoU2. The one before was GoW.
I buy games becasue they seem so much fun. I then the play a bit and enjoy it. And then... other stuff just takes over.

I have to be clear though: i don't call it backlog. I simply never touch those games ever again.

 

[Ariesfirebomb]

As others have mentioned,

sales mainly. Also for me, certain games don't "click" with me right away. Shadow of the tomb raider is a great example of this for me. Didn't care for it when I first grabbed it on sale. Played it during quarantine and it was a lot better to me.

 

[DvdGzz]

Buy, start a game, go back to Diablo 3 for the latest season. Jump from Diablo 3 to games on sale, rinse and repeat.

 

[Roshin]

PC gaming. Sales. Having other hobbies. Work. Family. Friends.

Also, I like having a choice. I don't buy one game, machine through it, uninstall, and then buy something new.

 

[ShinUltramanJ]

For me it was killer priced bundle after killer priced bundle. They just keep on coming on PC, especially in the early stages of being on the platform.
Selling keys often makes the game(s) you wanted from the bundle free, so might as well buy them.

Then there's all the freebies from Twitch, EGS, as well as the occasional free ones from Humble and GoG. It all adds up.

I'm not one to buy a game, scarf it down in a weekend, and move on. I don't have that kind of time, so for me everything takes a while to finish. My library just keeps growing, but I jump around and play what interests me regardless of age.

 

[stupei]

Sometimes you decide you want to play that kind of niche game that came out six months to a year ago and then you go looking for it. Turns out no stores have it in stock anymore, so if you want a physical copy it's now over $60. Or you can only buy it digitally and not actually own your copy where it's still full priced and hasn't gone on sale in a long time.

If that happens enough times, the next time a random niche thing you want is on sale or is likely to have a short print run, you just buy it, because you want to be able to play it someday and it's more expensive and annoying if you wait.

 

[Future_TraX]

Because of my son and too many good games.

 

[YuriLowell]

Follow wario64 and it's pretty easy.

 

[Massicot]

I avoid having much of a backlog by only buying games I know I can and intend to start playing pretty much right away.

 

[Jegriva]

I buy too many games. They look so good on my shelves.

 

[Rosebud]

I stopped seeing my games as a "backlog", to me it's a collection of games. I don't really spend money in other unimportant things outside of a occasional movie theater (not possible for months lol) and books/ebooks, so I don't feel too bad about it.

 

[Forgiven Empathy]

Because you get a switch and a few games, you tell yourself you'll play them, you finish one of them and you take a break to play MP games. A year later and a few very good sales where you get some deals you can't miss, you see this thread after playing Conan Exiles for 12 hours instead of making a lick of progress on any of them.

 

[StarPhlox]

I understand there are many reasons why it happens and that people approach the hobby differently, but for me it feels personally wasteful to buy stuff that I don't play as much of as I want (which is almost always the full game). My ~true~ backlog right now is just Mario 64 on the Switch. After that I'll either play something I've already played or get something new like Hades or Crash 4.

 

[RoaringMdog]

For me its because work leaves me so tired that i dont really play games during the week, and my gametime on the weekend is pretty limited too. But i still buy new games because i have no self control. So they're just piling up.