New Consoles Approaching - Anyone Thinking About Being More Conscious With Backlogs?

With the PS5 and Xbox Series X launches around the corner, I started thinking about my current generation gaming backlog. I have a lot of games to go through.

I came to a realization ~4-5 years ago that I simply don’t play games as much as I used to. Having a full time job, being in a long term relationship and prioritizing friendships definitely took away from the time I used to spend playing video games.

The only problem was that I was still buying video games at the same frequency as before. This lead to me having a huge backlog of games to play, many of which I haven’t even opened or played yet.

Since I already know I’m planning on buying a PS5 this year, I’m treating it as a fresh start to a new console. I’m going to basically write off a lot of the backlog I have right now and focus on PS5 forward and what I’m going to play — limiting that to CyberPunk 2077, until I actually need something new to play.

I’ve also held off buying The Last of Us II and Ghost of Tsushima as I’m waiting for sales on both, and figure I’d be better off waiting until I have a PS5 to play them on there once they’re cheaper and hopefully have enhancements to take advantage of the PS5’s hardware.

Does anyone else here view backlogs in the same light — and is thinking of being more conscious about their game purchases going forward? I see this as an opportunity to avoid FOMO (which is all too prevalent in gaming IMO) and hopefully be more savvy with my purchases, to avoid a huge backlog of games.

Horses have left the barn. Train has left the station... etc. But yeah, I'm doing this too... but I did buy TLOU2 and oh wow is it great you should really buy it now you know you wanna! come on

I've already sort of implemented this so I intend to continue to be more careful about what I buy going forward. I will probably still continue to impulse buy stuff on deep deep sales, because I like having a large library and I've gotten a lot of enjoyment from just picking random games I picked up a long time ago and playing through them, but in terms of full price games I've started being more careful and only really buying stuff I intend to play immediately.

These days waiting to play a game can not only save you money but can give you a substantially better experience because pretty much every game gets substantial patches after release.

Gamepass also helps with this because there's a good chance that any game on Xbox that I'm really interested in will come to that eventually and I can play it for free. It also means that I constantly have a large library of games to play if I want to, so a large backlog is less useful anyway.

I pretty much only buy games on sale at this point. If there is a franchise or developer releasing a game I will get it day one and try to prioritize playing the game. Example would be Doom Eternal, I waited on Doom 2016 and loved the hell out of it, so pre ordered doom eternal the second I could.

With the new consoles, I think I've decided to build a new computer and work on backlog and games that come out on that platform. I will get a PS5 eventually, might try to wait for a new iteration a year down the road after some exclusives come out, but I just barely play consoles now, let alone games in general, and I prefer to play on the PC anyways. I also really enjoy playing an older game and finding that it still holds up. I finally got around to playing System Shock 2 earlier this year and that game is still fucking incredible 21 years later. Like, top 3 favorite games of all time, wish I played it way back in the day kind of experience.

I've decided to hold off next gen until I've gotten through the stuff I really want to finish for my Wii, x360 & PS4. Its a huge list and there has been stuff I've cut just because I didn't like the game enough.

My backlog is kind of informing my purchase, I have PC Gamepass and a load of Xbox One Games I got through games with gold (I don't have a One but I kept GwG up for while as we were still using the 360 for ages) so although I might not afford one at launch I'll probably pick up a Series X of some description to get a few more of the unplayed from the previous generation done. I'm not too fussed about playing many things as soon as they come out these days so my adding to the backlog has definitely lessened.

Already kind of gotten there plus I play on PC so no big change for me.

I need to get into Monster Hunter and Witcher 3 before the generation is out. And probably finish RE4. The longer I leave them, the harder it'll be to go back to them.

I can proudly say that I've never really had much of a backlog. I never buy games for later so whenever I purchase something it's for the immediate purpose of playing it. Instead of buying 4-8 games on a Steam sale which amount to about $60 or more and then sitting on them for years and years until I "get around" to playing one, I simply buy a brand new title that I'm excited about full price and play through it entirely.

The one thing I noticed is that games last me a lot longer these days because I don't have the same fortitude as I did 10 years ago to sit there and play something for extended periods of time. I really liked Last of Us 2 but I could only play a maximum of maybe 2 hours a day if that, which led to me playing that game for over 2 weeks. I was shocked to find out some people bought it friday and were done by monday.

Now that I'm on the Game Pass gravy train there isn't even a real backlog to speak of. I also don't have any guilt for simply putting games down. In the past when I spent money on a game I would force myself to finish it even if I wasn't really having fun because A) I wanted to get my moneys worth and B) I wanted to be able to succinctly articulate why I didn't like it and that meant seeing it through to the very end. Now if something isn't my cup of tea, like most recently Children of Morta which I found FINE but kind of tedious, I simply move on. My shelf space is also real happy.

There has never been a better time to play and not-really-own games.

Nope, i'm still curious about all sorts of games that i want to play through, i've had a backlog for decades and i'm never going to change!!
That being said i'm having a harder time convincing myself to buy consoles, so unless games come to PC i'm more likely to miss them now, Sony's first party titles are tempting but i think they're kind of ugly, technically impressive sure, but i think there's a point where if the budget's too high a game can become a bit soulless, i do want a Switch though, that'll extend the backlog.

No, I have games that I bought and haven't finished, but that's because I didn't have enough interest to see them through, and if I ever feel like going back to them, I assume I'll be able to play them by backward compatibility. I will probably get Cyberpunk 2077 on next-gen consoles as I assume they're all going to be out around the same time.

@haz: I'm working through a bunch of my backlog now. Some games I'm playing for 1-3 hours and going, "I got what I wanted out of it" and moving on.

Side note: Assuming CP77 is bigger than W3 (as it seems to be touted), why buy a PS5 at launch? From the sounds of your gaming time, this game should last you a very, very long time. You could wait to get the console until you are ready for it. I realize that CP77 is going to get an upgrade on next gen, but is that worth it for just that game along with the nagging desire to buy more games for the platform you spent $X on?

The new launch date has to be intentionally after/on the later launching console. If both PS5 and Series X aren't out by November 19, I would be surprised.

I'm probably gonna stop gaming altogether next year. They haven't been fun for years

The way people talk about "Backlogs" is the same level of miserable nonsense I apply to people who talk about achievements. I will play whatever I think is interesting whenever I want to play it and worrying about some massive ever expanding catalogue of things "oh maybe I should get to but IIIII doooonnntt knoooow" is an unappealing way to play games to me.

I feel this way every time I get a new system, that I’m going to be better able amassing too big of a library. Then sales happen and I blackout...

I don't obsess over it, necessarily, but there's a great big pile of games I'd love to get way into one day and I'm almost certainly never going to get through all of them, unless I win the lottery and dedicate a large chunk of every single day to those games. I don't think that's nonsense, really, it's just a downside of being interested in all kinds of games from all sorts of eras and platforms.

As a more general answer to this thread, it's more work but also much more satisfying to finish a few games a year rather than try a hundred. If your approach to this is to only play the new games you're interested in and leave the old ones behind, that's one way of doing it. And, frankly, it's probably the best. Dedicate all your gaming time to a few new games a year, explore them thoroughly, and that's it. For my personal tastes and interests, I'd rather keep my games library around and play old stuff from years ago that I never really got into between the handful of new releases per year that I get. What this ultimately means is that no, I'm not leaving "the backlog" behind, just realizing that I'm not going to be able to get through everything and that's OK.

I'm also on PC, where I can't really leave behind the backlog even if I wanted to because it's all digital.

@haz:I'm sorry I'm not even really thinking of people posting in this thread exactly just in general. It's something i've thought about before. I probably put that first post way more acerbically than I should have which is my bad. If you're not obssessive about it then I definitely didn't mean you. It's just like, part of games culture chatter in a way that I think takes a bit away from enjoyment or even results in choice paralysis and then people just don't play anything at all. Like of course I also have a big list of games I'd like to play some day cause time is short. I think realizing its okay not to finish a game has also been very nice.

I have over the years bought games through sales and just barely played those games. If I had a PS5 or Xbox Series X, I would probably just play my backlog of games instead of buying new games for those systems. I started Bioshock yesterday and am near beating it. I rarely videogames for more than hour or two now. But the amount I play, I hope to come near finishing the game.

I don't have a huge backlog nor any interest in buying either next-gen system. I don't think either company has done a great job at selling their console for this year - they have some cool stuff in the next few years.

I am looking forward to Cyberpunk. Ghost of Tsushima is my GOTY at the moment - I just wish it had new game plus so I could jump back in the world. I can't say I was fan of TLAU 2. I'm not sure if Sony has said that those two PS4 games will play better on PS5.

Wait, you started Bioshock yesterday, you're nearly done with it today, but you only play an hour or two a day?

I recall Bioshock being a 15-20 hour game. Even on the easier difficulties, it should run you 8-12.

I've had the same approach for a couple years now.

My current backlog is around 15 games that I own. I prefer keeping it under 10 usually, but 15 is small enough to still feel manageable for me. Between GamePass, the NES & SNES virtual consoles on Switch, and replaying games in my own library, I don't feel any pressure to buy games at full price or on day 1. I reserve that for devs I want to support, which helps keep my backlog from growing too large.

(Ironically, this means I've never been less concerned with a next-gen launch lineup than I am now. I've gotten great value out of my refurbished Xbox One, and I'm happy to get a Series X (or S?) for the improved load times alone.)

Instead of a bigger backlog, I have pretty large wishlists across several platforms. However, not owning those games means I feel very little pressure to "clear the list".