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Are there too many games being released?

Do you feel too many games are released each year?

  • Yes, but I have plenty of time to play the good releases

    Votes: 7 11.1%

  • Yes, and there's not enough time to play the good releases. I feel like I'm missing out.

    Votes: 41 65.1%

  • No, I easily know of most if not all of the highly rated games and have time to play them.

    Votes: 9 14.3%

  • No, I only play games I've heard of. I don't care about potentially good but less well known games.

    Votes: 2 3.2%

  • I never thought about this before. Maybe their are too many games.

    Votes: 4 6.3%
  • Total voters
    63
Raven77

Raven77

Member
The N64 had 296 games released in the US. The Super Nintendo had around 770.

PS1 had 1,278

PS2 had 1,860

PS3 had around 1,500

PS5 has 1,200 physical games and 3,100 digital.

On steam in 2015 there were on average around 275 games released per month.

In 2025 there were around 1,800 games released on steam PER MONTH.

Personally I feel like it's really hard to keep up with all of the good releases. Steam seems to have multiple games releasing every week that are highly rated.

In the past this wasn't a problem. Again my opinion but I feel like less games is better. I just so happens that the console with the fewest amount of games has the most amount of games that I actually remember. The N64. I don't think that's a coincidence, it just had a lot less "noise" than modern consoles do. Most people generally had one, maybe two consoles.

When your favorite console only gets two or three games released a month every release is exciting. Every game has time to breathe, where you can enjoy it for months without feeling like you have to jump to the next big release.

Curious what other people think.
 
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I have a backlog that I've not been able to clear since the 360/PS3 gen. So I went with the second option. Yes, and unable to play them all.
 
FudgeIt said:
Naw I can't accept that shit
Click to expand...
I had a backlog of 1000+ games a few years back. Beat a lot of them, and gave up on a lot of them, but now I am down to less than 500.

There are too many games released, as you say, but you just have to try and find the ones you get a feeling for.

For instance, I want to get Crimson Desert, but I'm not buying yet, because I would need a spare 200 hours for it.
 
I'd say there's only one:
The Legend Of Zelda Link GIF

But Lies of P being fully on the cart is likely pushing me into purchase territory.
 
Yes.

Thats why MS and Sony should cull all their studios.
Lets go back the blockbuster model.
Everyone plays that one hot game of the year and we all talk about it.
All other games are fodder your weird cousin plays and you wonder how he even found it.
 
Maybe .00001% of the released games in the modern release count are of any quality.

It's easier to produce and release a game today with UE5, Unity, and digital distribution factored in than it was 20+ years ago.
 
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Absolutely. I have trouble keeping up with official releases sometimes much less all of the things filtering through the indie scene. And that's not even in consideration of all the games I never played from 20 plus years ago that I'm still planning to get to one day before I abruptly die.
 
I got time to play those games, but not to finish, and with many western studios dropping the ball it increases competition when we getting many new high quality AAA releases, that way im not constrained nor held hostage to mids and operate with abundance mindset :)
Basically as a gamer u are in a situation of professional high paid nba or nfl player/young handsome multimilionaire/A-list celeb and games are the bimbos who all wanna get time and financial commitment from u, u make the rules coz u are the prize :)

Now imagine if we were living durning gaming drought, that would make us all desperate and thirsty as hell, to the point we would behave like those hobosexuals, aka guys who will live (not just pump and dump, but give actuall longterm commitment)with masculine ratchet woman just to get roof over their head :messenger_grinning_squinting:
And lemme tell u, it doesnt look pretty at all:
 
if you count Steam indie slop of course, if not, no not really.

Black_Stride said:
Yes.

Thats why MS and Sony should cull all their studios.
Lets go back the blockbuster model.
Everyone plays that one hot game of the year and we all talk about it.
All other games are fodder your weird cousin plays and you wonder how he even found it.
Click to expand...
That's not the old model, it's the current model. One "hot"as you say, overrhyped to the death game per year and nothing else.
 
Labadal said:
I stopped FOMOing, and just playing what I have. I buy a few games per year, and nothing at full price.

Accepting that you cannot play everything is a big step.
Click to expand...
Yeah, much like with books, movies and TV, I accepted that I am just going to miss a ton of good games. I have limited time and it is what it is.

And you can't blame Valve for this either. They tried to curate at one point and everyone and their brother (including gaming press) jumped down their throat for that.
 
I stopped viewing my games as a backlog and as a library, instead.

I play whatever I'm in the mood for and love the hype and community around a new game. I'll drop a game if I'm not enjoying it anymore and might come back to it later.

There are games out there for everyone. You just gotta know where to look.

That wasn't the case in the 90's, but we did value and play what we had. It was just a different time, but I still loved playing the newest stuff back then.
 
Yes, especially on Steam.

I actually burst out laughing at the start of the SGF when Geoff showed a chart with nearly 10,000 games released so far in 2026 as if it was a good thing.

All the asset flip, mostly AI, achievement machines, and just straight up garbage should NEVER even be allowed to be on any of the stores. Have some integrity and standards.
 
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Yes, I've really had to prioritize which genres and IP's I enjoy the most and reconcile with the knowledge that some 90+ Metacritic games are just not going to get played since I can really only finish about ten games a year.
 
R6Rider said:
Yes, especially on Steam.

I actually burst out laughing at the start of the SGF when Geoff showed a chart with nearly 10,000 games released so far in 2026 as if it was a good thing.

All the asset flip, mostly AI, achievement machines, and just straight up garbage should NEVER even be allowed to be on any of the stores. Have some integrity and standards.
Click to expand...
This, a reason for the count being so high now is because back then to release a game that wasn't freeware you need a publisher.

A lot of these games in that 10,000 games count wouldn't get any one to publish them.
 
In what world is less games better? You know you don't have to play every game on launch day right? Having a lot of options is good. I hate it when I have nothing to play

Also it's not like we're all interested in all the games that get released.

analog_future said:
21,000 games released in 2025.


Yes.
Click to expand...
And you're interested in all 21k games??
 
The steamdeck is sort of a performance filter on new games for me. Anyways, there's not really such a thing a too many new games. There's always time to play them later, except for the day there isn't.
 
Yes.
And it's a big reason why I barely buy anything on day 1 anymore.
I have so many games from the last 2-3 years on my wishlist, and there's always something I want to play on sale.

I'm playing KCD2 right now which I got for $30, and I recently picked up Ninja Gaiden 2 Black for $25 and The Alters for like $18. And I still have like 25+ games on my wishlist, with new ones getting added almost every month.

Why pay $60-70 for a game when there's always like 20+ games on my wishlist that I find just as appealing and are usually way cheaper.
 
In a way yes, there's only so much time you can spread around, I used to finish games much more consistently, like "backlog" wasn't really a thing for me during the 360 era; now my backlog is fucking huge.
 
Labadal said:
I had a backlog of 1000+ games a few years back. Beat a lot of them, and gave up on a lot of them, but now I am down to less than 500.

There are too many games released, as you say, but you just have to try and find the ones you get a feeling for.

For instance, I want to get Crimson Desert, but I'm not buying yet, because I would need a spare 200 hours for it.
Click to expand...

I am the same way regarding Crimson Desert. I might play this when I am on vacation in July. I am off for a month and I will be turning off my computer. Might play after some pool days.

I feel like I like to experience a lot of different games, even if they are similar. I wish we had more time for games for sure. Sometimes I look at the Steam games I have wishlisted and I am like, wow, I wish I can play these quickly enough. Now I don't have a steam device, so I am sort of anxiously waiting for a Steam Machine. That won't help the backlog.
 
ungalo said:
That's not the old model, it's the current model. One "hot"as you say, overrhyped to the death game per year and nothing else.
Click to expand...

2026 so far.

Resident Evil Requiem
Saros - bite me
Crimson Desert
Forza Horizon 6
007 First Light
Pragmata
Pokopia
Nioh 3
Screamer


You what love?
 
Instant_Classic said:
Maybe .00001% of the released games in the modern release count are of any quality.

It's easier to produce and release a game today with UE5, Unity, and digital distribution factored in than it was 20+ years ago.
Click to expand...


true but even among the big games. too many releasing. not enough people buying because service games like fortnight and roblox are suckin up mass market casual gamers time and money. there are supposedly a billion gamers out there yet 99% of games barely hit a meanigful fraction of that number of players


Just look at this:

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indu...than-steam-playstation-and-fortnite-combined/



shit like roblox sucess is coming at the expense of the rest of the industry. imagine all of those hours, and all that engagement.... which equals money, that is not being spent on other games? the industry has a problem from within that has trained a young generation of gamers with already short attention spans, to value nothing about traditional video games. in the same way people stop going movies because of netflix, and stopped buying music because of spotify and youtube. devs are spending hundreds of millions making games that will probably only see 5 million lifetime sales over the course of years if im being generously optimistic....and even then they may say its a faliure. just look at square-enix. always complaining about sales even though they sell millions.and they aint the only publisher who feels like that. what constitutes a sucesseful game anymore? is the investors seeing all that roblox money and naively thinking they can mimic its financial success? so many issues with the gaming biz as a whole.
 
I think there are just too many games in general.

I'm not one to say the industry should shrink or that the number of releases should decrease, far from it. But realistically speaking, and taking the macroeconomics into consideration, there will be victims even between good games.

It's survival of the fittest in this wild industry. No one can play everything out there, and there is just so much people and time to be divided between all these games, backlogs included. All in all, there's no right or wrong solution here.
 
Labadal said:
I stopped FOMOing, and just playing what I have. I buy a few games per year, and nothing at full price.

Accepting that you cannot play everything is a big step.
Click to expand...
Yeah I noticed this phenomenon when there was a YouTuber I liked (Atrocity Guide) took a year for a long video and worked hard to get interviews that other people who covered the same subject didn't.

Rather than focus on the quality of what she output, the interviews she obtained and the presentation everyone bitch she covered a subject that other channels touched on already.

Meanwhile, because I don't spend my life in YouTube, I had no idea about it.

You can't watch everything
You can't read everything
You can't be everywhere
You can't do it all

Enjoy your peace and the moment
 
StueyDuck said:
Too many games? Yes

Good games? No

Content slop... most of it
Click to expand...
Thats true with every generation. People say PS2 had lots of greats games and it had but people also forget there was stupid amount of shovelware games.....type of game that would be $1.99 on PSN store but back in PS2 era they got physical release.
 
RickMasters said:
true but even among the big games. too many releasing. not enough people buying because service games like fortnight and roblox are suckin up mass market casual gamers time and money. there are supposedly a billion gamers out there yet 99% of games barely hit a meanigful fraction of that number of players


Just look at this:

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indu...than-steam-playstation-and-fortnite-combined/



shit like roblox sucess is coming at the expense of the rest of the industry. imagine all of those hours, and all that engagement.... which equals money, that is not being spent on other games? the industry has a problem from within that has trained a young generation of gamers with already short attention spans, to value nothing about traditional video games. in the same way people stop going movies because of netflix, and stopped buying music because of spotify and youtube. devs are spending hundreds of millions making games that will probably only see 5 million lifetime sales over the course of years if im being generously optimistic....and even then they may say its a faliure. just look at square-enix. always complaining about sales even though they sell millions.and they aint the only publisher who feels like that. what constitutes a sucesseful game anymore? is the investors seeing all that roblox money and naively thinking they can mimic its financial success? so many issues with the gaming biz as a whole.
Click to expand...
Great points
 
There's always been shovelware but on PS1 to PS3, because games were physical, it was easier to see great games, and shit ones were moved to bargain bins, now it's mainly digital those shit games are put next to good ones, so it's like a sewer and someone's thrown some gold in it.
 
Well, when you remove the pron games, it's really only like 2 a month, right?

Yeah, I stole the joke from Fleekazoid
 
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N64 had outstanding pillar titles, but the small library and software droughts were a problem not to lauded. It didn't have enough games to save itself.
 
There has always been tons of trash games that almost noone plays.
The issue is there are less culturally impactful games.

GTA6 will most likely be one. But there has been very few, if any, this generation.
I'm talking games like Mario 3, Ocarina of Time, GTA3, Halo 2, Modern Warfare, etc.
 
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