Over saturation of the Games market?

[Silk]

I've noticed lately a rapidly increasing trend of gamers, like myself, who seem to own an ever-increasing collection of games they haven't even opened or played yet.

Unlike films, games take hours, days or weeks to "complete". You can only fit so much gaming time into your life.

Are you in the same situation where you have several games you just haven't gotten around to playing yet? Do you still keep buying games anyway (e.g. in sales)? Do you think you'll reach a point where a line will be drawn and there's just no point in buying anymore as you have a backlog of several dozen?

I was thinking about this today as I didn't purchase even half the games I wanted to last year. Even though they are my kind of game. Even though I've seen them plummet in price.

Could the whole gaming industry face threat if this problem grows? Are games being churned out too quickly? And now we have DLC as well, boosting the life of games further (makes you wonder if DLC could do them more harm than good in the long run)!

 

[thatbloke]

lol I was having this conversation with Trax a couple of days ago and I went through every game on my Steam list that I had either not played or played for less than 2 hours... let's just say there was a few hundred pounds worth of games there... part of the "issue" is that I don't have all the time I'd like, and another part of the issue is that other games hold my interest for longer - I spent the majority of last year playing two games: EVE Online and Bad Company 2.

Despite that I continued to buy other games, thinking I'd play them, but continued to go back to either BC2 or EVE for my gaming "fix"

Do I think this is a problem? no
Could it be causing issues where many games aren't getting the sales that may be expected? possibly

 

[Huung]

I'm rather glad my Steam client crashes on attempting to load the updates page/store - it stops me from going insane in the sales. I actually didn't buy anything in the last sale apart from SMB, and that I had to do online after being told it was in the sale.

Usually the Steam sales ruin me, I can't help buying games even if I know I'll likely not play them very much at all. Bargain DVDs can be purchased for a few quid once they've been out for a while, but you can get 3 or 4 super cheap Steam sale games for that, and even if I only play each for an hour I've "made my money" out of them.

I never look at my games collection and feel I've wasted money, but I've definitely started to cut down on the number of games I'm purchasing - not least because I spend almost all of my free time recently on WoW.
If WoW suddenly disappeared from my life I'm sure I'd end up playing through a whole multitude of games, but I really don't see that happening . I'm in two minds as to whether that even bothers me; after all, why play many various games if I'm happy with one? Anyhoo, I'll stop now, as that last sentence made me feel like I've just married WoW, and I now have to contemplate just how bad a person I am

 

[Panda with issues...]

I probably have enough unplayed games on steam to last me 10 years

 

[Zooggy]

Hey,

I use Metaboli. I have a ton and a half of downloaded games I want to play and/or finish. I have games to play for the remainder of my natural life, I think...

Cheers,
J.

 

[Taffy]

I'm sitting here, looking at my unopened copy of RUSE, whilst simultaeneously buying an expansion pack for Europa Universalis, a game I uninstalled a few weeks ago. I've also recently reinstalled SPORE and Napoleon: Total War, whilst my new copy of Civ V goes unloved in the corner.

Yes there is a bit of saturation going on, but then again, I have SO MANY OPTIONS!!

 

[Spicypixel]

I'm rather glad my Steam client crashes on attempting to load the updates page/store - it stops me from going insane in the sales. I actually didn't buy anything in the last sale apart from SMB, and that I had to do online after being told it was in the sale.

Usually the Steam sales ruin me, I can't help buying games even if I know I'll likely not play them very much at all. Bargain DVDs can be purchased for a few quid once they've been out for a while, but you can get 3 or 4 super cheap Steam sale games for that, and even if I only play each for an hour I've "made my money" out of them.

I never look at my games collection and feel I've wasted money, but I've definitely started to cut down on the number of games I'm purchasing - not least because I spend almost all of my free time recently on WoW.
If WoW suddenly disappeared from my life I'm sure I'd end up playing through a whole multitude of games, but I really don't see that happening . I'm in two minds as to whether that even bothers me; after all, why play many various games if I'm happy with one? Anyhoo, I'll stop now, as that last sentence made me feel like I've just married WoW, and I now have to contemplate just how bad a person I am

You're a terrible person, but I demand nothing less.

On the note of games I desire to be bothered to play and haven't, top of the list is Metro 2033. One day...

 

[Velaphor]

On the note of games I desire to be bothered to play and haven't, top of the list is Metro 2033. One day...

Played the game. Read the book. Won the game of life. DO IT!

 

[Dragon]

Played the game. Read the book. Won the game of life. DO IT!

Read the book and don't play the game ...