How to Deal With Huge Game Backlogs | Viewpoints 

(3:58) I started a spreadsheet too! It makes me sad sometimes, that I have games I bought years ago, haven't played and probably won't for a long time still, that by the time I get to it, it will have aged and I may not enjoy it as much as I would have, had I not waited so long. Also kinda sucks that some games I bought have been remastered, yet I haven't even played the original version yet. I also have huge backlogs of other things: movies, TV shows, anime, books, digital comics. Music is the one thing I don't have a backlog - I have a large library, but listen daily, so it all gets in there pretty regularly. It's kinda silly to say, but it actually gets very overwhelming to try to decide which thing to watch or play. I often end up too preoccupied with whether I picked the "right thing", instead of just enjoying this piece of entertainment I paid for.

This is one of my favorite Kotaku series and love hearing everyone's different perspectives. Keep up the great work.

200 games on backlog? And that’s the LOW end? Man, and I thought I had a problem..... I don’t even own that many games.

I am having 20 games in my backlog and I already feel like it's enough

This was my favorite video in this series. Often I've found them too dry, but this conversation was engaging (good personality mix) and the video clips added to it.

I really enjoyed this video. I found some really valuable points including not playing games on release - not only do you get the benefits of updates playing later on, you can also save a lot of money not buying on release. Ultimately though the point of backlogs not being something negative is a great swing on things, the positive is that you will play what you essentially want to play the most, games on your backlog obviously are not your utmost priority. I personally just traded in my whole backlog of over 100 games and started again and feel a much fresher gamer with a fresh vision.

This speaks to me on such a visceral level....I really need to get through all of these games...

Personal tip for chipping away at a back log: just beat it. As micheal Jackson once said. Don’t collect every collectible. Don’t play it on mega hard. If it’s a game I you like but don’t Love is just beat it once and then uninstall it. Boom. That’s a game checked off. You got some achievements/trophies and experienced the game but now you are able to move on. And don’t force yourself to play through a game you don’t like that much. Play the ones you really like and are interested in. Don’t push through a game that you aren’t interested in.

I had like 300-400 games in my backlog 3 years ago, today I have 80. GOG Galaxy, HowLongtoBeat and an excel sheet... and of course stop buying games. Categorize and prioritize (A,B,C...), play what you want the most first.

I'm a gamer with really bad OCD with very few things. The only persistent OCD I have is CONSTANTLY trying to figure out what games I want to play / don't like, etc and mostly I just re-organize my library almost daily and I have 1,600 games. It's a nightmare, a stupid nightmare but a nightmare with someone with OCD. I thank you guys for talking about this and helping me with it a little.

I got a 45 game backlog and I've been playing Red Dead 2 from October through January and only on 66% of the story. I made a chart of what games I'm going to play in order. I start with the multiplayer games, then the games of my favorite genre (action RPG), then I play the story driven games, then everything else.

I love this kind of talk because I feel some kind of way about having all of these games on my library and have not completed them.

Glad I stumbled on this. I'm going through the same thing. Thanks.

We should be so lucky that we have so many games to play. Plenty of people can't afford to do so, whether by circumstance or poor life decisions. Honestly, I look at collecting videogames like collecting art. Except this is digital art that can be interacted with and enjoyed several times over in any number of different ways. I buy most of my games on deep digital sales, which happen quite often these days. The Playstation Store usually has something I need on sale every week when the sales cycle over. If I don't have the time or motivation to play something when it's brand new, I just wait a while for a deep sale to come around and save myself a few bucks in the process. I also make sure to only buy games that have been well-reviewed, as even though it may be on sale, I'm not wasting money on garbage games. It's nice to always have that backlog like a 'rainy day' fund of quality videogames, so that way when you're bored, you can almost always usually find something entertaining to do during those 'rainy days.' I'm actually pretty thankful to have a healthier hobby like videogames to devote my time and money towards, rather than drinking, drugs, or gambling. The other great thing about collecting all of this great digital art is that it will almost never lose it's entertainment value or fade beneath the sands of time. Especially with the newer consoles in the future likely retaining their backwards compatibility pertaining to digital copies, videogames seem like as good of an investment as they ever have for personal entertainment. Worst case scenario would be that you just use an emulator of sorts, and that can many times be just as good as the original.

Great talk. Thoughtful points and enjoyed watching.

that beans analogy just hit me deep

I'm ashamed of my backlog. I'm playing less and less with age, even tough VGs are my main pass time, but at this pace, i don't think i'll ever get a chance to play all the games i have. On Steam alone, i got.....let me check...1167 games. Of those, maybe 75% i've never played them once. But it get's worse. On GOG i've got...576 games (the majority are retro tittles, i'm rather proud of these, even if i never touch them) On Origin, 30. On UBI, 14 On physical media, maybe 50. ................i shouldn't have counted them, i'm feeling depressed just adding them up. I got "greedy" over the years, i wanted to play everything, even tough i barely have the time to do so. I really wish i would have built a much smaller and focused games collection. Maybe around 200 of truly essential games (plus my GOG collection, which i truly adore). 1/4 would probably be RPGs, which by design take a while to finish. and then the occasional indie gem, or some high profile anticipated title, but little else. I started my collection with pride and joy, but these days it feels like an anchor of shame i have to carry, because i neither play them, nor can i get rid of them.

I really want to get a switch and smash ultimate but I’ve been preventing myself from doing so because of my steam backlog. About last year my steam backlog got way to huge due to humble bundles, steam sales, green man gaming, etc. I decided I wasn’t going to purchase anymore games until I finish my backlog. Well here I am now and according to how long to beat, I have about 400 hours to go. Which based off how long I play games each day, it would probably take me nearly another year to put that time in. Ever since I started my backlog conquering journey, gaming hasn’t been as fun anymore. Especially since I’ve always preferred online experiences better because of my need for video games to give me a sense of competence and mastery. I use to play SP games just every once in awhile but now it’s all the time. I got sucked in by all those deals and hype. Most of my SP games have raving steam reviews but for some reason I don’t enjoy most of them. I would like to get smash ultimate because I know that’s a game I would fucking love but my backlog almost mentally breaks me down. It actually gives me anxiety. I feel guilty buying new games. I don’t want to buy games in bulk anymore. For now on, I will only purchase a game when I’m finished with what I already own

is there a KODI version of games with covers, videos. That way i could organize and look at the images and get more motivated to play a game.

I also think it's hard to put down online games for single player games I may really enjoy. Skinner trap kind of thing it feels like. But I get lots of enjoyment out of the single player games

2021 and still have 162 games in backlog on ps4...i have ocd of buying stuff and thanks to time to time sales on ps4 games i bought every damn AAA title released so far like spiderman,ghost of tsushima, last of us 2 etc and i have finished only 39 titles so far....and also ps5 released. If you dont believe i may share my library screenshots...its very depressing with so much huge backlog! I still keep buying...may be i need help...

I just made a list of all the games in my back log of games and it's about 15 pages long. That's across 4 consoles and PC. Really six with OG XBOX on XB1 and PS1 and PS2 games on the PS3. Decided I won't be Replaying any games for a long while. RPGs are the worst but I love RPGs.

I feel like i need go fast to finish a campaign instead of taking my time im currently playing spiderman ps4 and leaving red dead redemption 2 for last so i can take my time and for me i dont know how to play 2 campagn story games at once cuz im afraid i wil flrget the story and cant focus

At the start of this year I made a list of games I wanted to finish this year. There were 20 Switch games and 12 ps4 games on there. Currently I’ve finished about 8 Switch games and 5 Ps4 games (some from start to finish and others I was already halfway through). It’s more than I have finished ever in such a short amount of time. My lists though are now 29 Switch games and still 12 ps4 because I keep buying stuff. I don’t really care anymore. The one thing I promised myself is to not buy too many games before finishing something else but I’m not making it an obsession to complete my backlog because it can get quite stressful and that’s exactly how I don’t want to feel when I’m playing video games.

How do you know you beaten a rougelike? When do you take it out from the backlog?

I have that mentality of playing the best ones last. So I end up not playing the ones I really like. Most of the time i keep trying to finish these last gen games before i can move onto better ones current gen. It does feel like a chore sometimes. I think ive spent more time watching RU-vid videos about games than actually playing games. Backlog management has become rather stressful deciding which which games to drop due to lack of time. And Im constantly thinking about other better games when playing.

Man y’all got an online shopping problem worse than a lot of hoarders

I haven't played Assassin's Creed Origins & Odyssey because I have Unity in my backlog and 'I need to play them in order' fuck. Not anymore, I'm getting my dessert.

I have 500 games on steam and I know THERE IS NO WAY i can finish them....... I KEEP BUYING MORE FUCK i need a counselor.

My PS4 backlog is 500 games(physical) deep lol it would probably take 30+ years to complete too many great games on PS4

bruh, when i was like 10 i just had one game that i played endlessly, and it was so fun because i didnt just keep wanting more i was happy with what i had. Now i've got like 3 unfinished games because i've gotten a bit older (i have a pc and money to spend on it) and playing games just doesnt have that charm. I wish i could go back in time and prevent myself from buying new games.

I also have a spreadsheet

So funny... i have about 500 game backlog (between all my consoles)... my system is: make a list and play one rpg, and various action, shooter and platforming games per month... no online gaming or replaying old games...

I literally have 4 games in my backlog but it’s still so STRESSFUL

then theres my steam library.... not even the tip of the iceberg with all my free games on epic, and then origin, and then GOG, then ubisoft... good god. i have years worth of games. yet the sales are so enticing.

Back when "people" worked at Kotaku.

i have probably 500 games or more on backlog...

I like brown beans (wtf?!?!)

"The best books in the world do not waste your time." I'd disagree. The Lord of the Rings has a *lot* of padding, as do most books by Charles Dickens. They're fantastic books, but they don't always respect your time.

I have around 150 games on steam I haven't played yet. I've decided I'll quit that backlog, and started a new one with Switch games where I only need to play 6 more games.

"Play games you enjoy" and "it's okay not to finish a game you don't enjoy" are great takeaways from this.

To Steven's point about time wasting..... Ask 18th century farmers if books are a waste of time. Or ask the parents of kids during The British Invasion if those records wasted their children's time. We are all just wasting our time until we die. Games, TV, Music, Books. Hug your kids and love your family and spend your time however you want. It's all a waste.