I remember being younger and being hit with this realization that not only are there more books than I could read in a lifetime, but more excellent books than I could ever read, even if I had a...
I remember being younger and being hit with this realization that not only are there more books than I could read in a lifetime, but more excellent books than I could ever read, even if I had a perfectly curated-to-me list (and mind you at this age we didn't have "the algorithm" to dictate such suggestions). And at the time, this filled me with great dread -- a certainty that I will be missing something beautiful and worthwhile. I briefly considered that movies and shows have likely breached this same event horizon, but didn't feel I could assert it with the same confidence, nor was I terribly interested in the thought since I liked books and games more.
Video games have always been my favorite medium, I recognized that comparatively it is young with few entries. At the time, it seemed entirely possible I could actually play every excellent-for-me entry... If time were frozen. And at the time this brought me some small comfort. I couldn't tell you when we breached that event horizon, but I can confidently say we're well past it. My backlog anxiety and wallet weep, that old dread lurks in the background too, but in earnest I have learned to be grateful that the medium is expanding and evolving so rapidly. Better to miss beautiful unknowns than to run out of meaningful experiences.
My Steam wishlist has been slowly growing over the past 4 years, whereas it was kept under 10 before then. I still go through and trim it every once in a while, but it's currently at 41. There are...
My Steam wishlist has been slowly growing over the past 4 years, whereas it was kept under 10 before then. I still go through and trim it every once in a while, but it's currently at 41.
There are still games that are an instant buy for me (Hades 2 going 1.0 this week was one of those, it's so worth it if Hades 1 was your thing), but more and more of those are games that have already released. Of those 41 games on my wishlist, 30 are already out, with 8 of those on sale. Games that I want are on sale and I'm not buying them because I have other games to be playing. Of the 11 that haven't released yet, only 3 of them are going to be "instant buy"s upon release with the rest joining that already growing list.
I'm with you on this one, there are amazing games that I'm playing. Experiences that are truly artful, mindless fun, and social experiences among them. I've come to terms with the fact that I won't get to everything on my wishlist. If I were to do another wishlist trim right now there would be 8 games removed from it. That's the price I pay for taking time to enjoy the games I've chosen to enjoy. I'd rather be doing this than rushing to complete everything I'm interested in at the time it comes out and before the next one comes out.
You put that so beautifully! I agree, it's a mixed feeling for me as well. The fear of not being able to experience everything, balanced by the liberation I feel knowing I can drop a game at any...
You put that so beautifully! I agree, it's a mixed feeling for me as well. The fear of not being able to experience everything, balanced by the liberation I feel knowing I can drop a game at any time, and there'll be so many others I can pick up, to suit my wants in that moment
I struggle with being too much of a completionist and achievement chaser at times, playing games beyond the point where they're fun anymore, and thinking on the optimistic side of there being too many amazing games, can definitely help me with that bad habit
The gift link comes from the article author's Bluesky account I saw this over on Resetera, and in that thread, I see overwhelming agreement, thousands of games coming out every single year, it's...
The gift link comes from the article author's Bluesky account
I saw this over on Resetera, and in that thread, I see overwhelming agreement, thousands of games coming out every single year, it's well, overwhelming
Over the past few years, the video-game industry has faced a difficult contraction period during which companies have laid off thousands of employees due to flattened growth. There have been many reasons for this shift, such as huge, Covid-era investments that didn’t pan out. But one problem stands above the rest — there are too many video games.
In 2024, a staggering 18,626 games were released on Steam, according to SteamDB, a website that tracks data on the popular PC platform. That’s an increase of around 93% from 2020, when 9,656 games were released.
Most of last year’s Steam games went undiscovered and unplayed by the majority of users. But a surprising number were received quite well. Of the 1,431 games released last year that garnered more than 500 reviews — an indication that they were played by at least a few thousand people — more than 260 were rated positively by 90% or more of the players. More than 800 scored 80% or better.
In other words, this isn’t like the 1980s, when the US gaming market crashed due to a flood of poorly made products. Today, there are too many video games, and many of them are great.
I wish there was more heterogeneity in video games (and perhaps all media) distribution, community building, and discovery. I like steam as a platform and launcher, but by having almost all games...
I wish there was more heterogeneity in video games (and perhaps all media) distribution, community building, and discovery. I like steam as a platform and launcher, but by having almost all games funneled through its storefront (yes I'm aware of itch, GOG, epic, etc but I expect it's equivalent to saying that there are other search engines than Google) on PC it encourages a lot of snap approval rating shopping and an overload of games. As a consumer I'll just only look at and play the top 0.01% of games because, well, why wouldn't I? Steam makes that easy and there's many upsides for me individually to play the current community consensus best games in any niche. As an industry though, I expect it means that most releases are feast or famine. I've wondered if and how platforms could get players to play and build communities around games further down the tail of any given genre. In many cases players would get a game 95% as good as the market leader and the industry might be healthier for it. If there were more store fronts, more visible communities, more independent discovery methods, etc than just getting stuff through steam then there might at least be different consensus on the top set of games in any given niche available to a particular consumer.
The part of the article that implies that discoverability needs improving in the industry is a part I'm on board with. As the end-user though I have no qualms about being spoiled for choice. I...
The part of the article that implies that discoverability needs improving in the industry is a part I'm on board with.
As the end-user though I have no qualms about being spoiled for choice. I feel like games could permanently stop releasing today and I'd probably still be gaming for the rest of my life.
I remember being younger and being hit with this realization that not only are there more books than I could read in a lifetime, but more excellent books than I could ever read, even if I had a perfectly curated-to-me list (and mind you at this age we didn't have "the algorithm" to dictate such suggestions). And at the time, this filled me with great dread -- a certainty that I will be missing something beautiful and worthwhile. I briefly considered that movies and shows have likely breached this same event horizon, but didn't feel I could assert it with the same confidence, nor was I terribly interested in the thought since I liked books and games more.
Video games have always been my favorite medium, I recognized that comparatively it is young with few entries. At the time, it seemed entirely possible I could actually play every excellent-for-me entry... If time were frozen. And at the time this brought me some small comfort. I couldn't tell you when we breached that event horizon, but I can confidently say we're well past it. My backlog anxiety and wallet weep, that old dread lurks in the background too, but in earnest I have learned to be grateful that the medium is expanding and evolving so rapidly. Better to miss beautiful unknowns than to run out of meaningful experiences.
My Steam wishlist has been slowly growing over the past 4 years, whereas it was kept under 10 before then. I still go through and trim it every once in a while, but it's currently at 41.
There are still games that are an instant buy for me (Hades 2 going 1.0 this week was one of those, it's so worth it if Hades 1 was your thing), but more and more of those are games that have already released. Of those 41 games on my wishlist, 30 are already out, with 8 of those on sale. Games that I want are on sale and I'm not buying them because I have other games to be playing. Of the 11 that haven't released yet, only 3 of them are going to be "instant buy"s upon release with the rest joining that already growing list.
I'm with you on this one, there are amazing games that I'm playing. Experiences that are truly artful, mindless fun, and social experiences among them. I've come to terms with the fact that I won't get to everything on my wishlist. If I were to do another wishlist trim right now there would be 8 games removed from it. That's the price I pay for taking time to enjoy the games I've chosen to enjoy. I'd rather be doing this than rushing to complete everything I'm interested in at the time it comes out and before the next one comes out.
You put that so beautifully! I agree, it's a mixed feeling for me as well. The fear of not being able to experience everything, balanced by the liberation I feel knowing I can drop a game at any time, and there'll be so many others I can pick up, to suit my wants in that moment
I struggle with being too much of a completionist and achievement chaser at times, playing games beyond the point where they're fun anymore, and thinking on the optimistic side of there being too many amazing games, can definitely help me with that bad habit
The gift link comes from the article author's Bluesky account
I saw this over on Resetera, and in that thread, I see overwhelming agreement, thousands of games coming out every single year, it's well, overwhelming
I wish there was more heterogeneity in video games (and perhaps all media) distribution, community building, and discovery. I like steam as a platform and launcher, but by having almost all games funneled through its storefront (yes I'm aware of itch, GOG, epic, etc but I expect it's equivalent to saying that there are other search engines than Google) on PC it encourages a lot of snap approval rating shopping and an overload of games. As a consumer I'll just only look at and play the top 0.01% of games because, well, why wouldn't I? Steam makes that easy and there's many upsides for me individually to play the current community consensus best games in any niche. As an industry though, I expect it means that most releases are feast or famine. I've wondered if and how platforms could get players to play and build communities around games further down the tail of any given genre. In many cases players would get a game 95% as good as the market leader and the industry might be healthier for it. If there were more store fronts, more visible communities, more independent discovery methods, etc than just getting stuff through steam then there might at least be different consensus on the top set of games in any given niche available to a particular consumer.
The part of the article that implies that discoverability needs improving in the industry is a part I'm on board with.
As the end-user though I have no qualms about being spoiled for choice. I feel like games could permanently stop releasing today and I'd probably still be gaming for the rest of my life.