How many games do you need in a year?

[crazyjackcsa]

A common theme on a lot of threads (especially the Wii but the PS3 and 360 are mentioned as well) is that there aren't enough good games, or they're released too far apart or that" My Wii has collected dust ever since "X' game came out" What I'd like to know is how many games do you purchase in a year? I'm only counting new games for current systems, this is more of a playing thing, versus a collecting thing.

I'm beginning to feel that the cycle between big releases is too fast and to be honest I think there are too many choices. Looking over my collection I've always purchased about 3-4 big name titles a year, and maybe 2-3 budget titles I may have missed. Over a 5 year life span for a console, I usually collect about 25 games, so obviously games fall through the cracks, but everywhere I read, people want MORE! MORE! MORE! A game like Super Mario Galaxy is already considered old, and people already want info on the next one!

When I was younger I looked forward to each game that would come out, and spend months playing it, and just as I was winding down my enjoyment for it, I would start to look forward to the next one. The Christmas rush would last me until April. Now with all these games released I find I don't enjoy the individual title as much, as it seems to be a rush onto the next big thing.

I'd like to know, how many games a year is enough? If you see a half dozen high quality titles is that enough for you? A dozen? More?

[Deadman]

I have a Wii and a 360 and to be honest, the Wii really does collect dust most of the time, as there aren't a lot of great "adult" games for it. The only time it was used on a daily basis was when I was working through Resident Evil 4. Super Metroid held my attention for a few days, and Prince of Persia was okay, but mostly the Wii here is used by my kids for Galaxy or Mario Kart most of the time.

I do find that I tend to "overload" on games a few times a year - during a big sale or some promotion, leaving me with way too many games to play at the same time on my 360. Currently, I have BioShock, Mass Effect, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, Lost Planet, Prey, and a few others that have NEVER been in my 360, due to a huge backlog of games!!

I wonder if I'll ever get caught up.....

[Electric Blue]

What really sucks is if you're like me and have OCD about buying your games new instead of used. If i bought everything I wanted to I'd be spending like $1000 a month on new releases alone.

[jcalder8]

Need: zero
Want: I want to have 8-10 big budget titles and 12-15 budget titles

[smork]

I probably buy 15-25 current gen games a year. How many do I need? dunno, 10 or so.

Honestly, I don't really think about what I buy so much...

[carlcarlson]

12-15 would probably suffice, provided they have longevity. If a game has good online play or is a deep rpg then I'm pretty much set.

Really though, I've found that I'm pretty ADD when it comes to gaming, and I am having an increasingly hard time staying focused on a game. Example: I got Puzzle Quest and love it, but shortly after I had to get Phantom Hourglass. Now that I'm a few hours into that I'm out of the DS. My mind just won't stay put.

[otaku]

I dunno about need (I could just be like my brother and play wow all year) I just bought 30 games this week (all old stuff) new games probably a dozen or so a year i would guess but maybe more.

[Trebuken]

I might buy a dozen (half DS and PSP at $29.99) new the first 8 months of the year, and then about 15 the last four months of the year. I go in weekly now just to put money down on preorders so that I can afford them all at the end of the year. If I don't play them all they will at least last me through March since little of consequence usually comes out in January and February.

[PapaStu]

Since I mostly buy new games, I tend to buy alot every year. I'd say that i've bought probably 100+ games in the last 12 months, if not more. I don't specifically focus on A-list titles or anything like that, I go after franchises, or developer/publisher releases more than I go after X premium title. Don't get me wrong though, I get plenty of those titles too. They just don't have an overall bearing on my # of purchases over the course of the year, save for xmas. Then I determine which xmas release titles can wait, and which ones are ASAP buys. I've operated that way for years and I see no reason for changing anytime soon.

[mnbren05]

25-30 this year. I focus on 10-15 big budget games and then try out budget titles and used games with the remaining amount. (Cash flow obviously deteremines how many also)

[SpaceHarrier]

About 20 games a year across all systems including retro. In terms of the Wii, maybe only 1 or 2 more games announced from Nintendo for this year would have made me completely happy. I agree there are just too many titles to have time to enjoy them all and give them the time they are worth.

[crazyjackcsa]

Wow! There are a lot of people spending a lot on games. I'd like to know, how do find time for them all? Can you really say you sit down with each one and play it until you've gotten all the enjoyment out of it? Papa Stu, if you buy 100 games a year that's a game every 3.5 days. Do you really get as much enjoyment out of each title that you would if you only bought 10? If buying one game gives you "x" amount of happiness, does buying 50 give you 50 times as much happiness?

[mnbren05]

I find it hard to play through all of the games I get (if they are retro I only play them for a few hours or use online guides to get through them quickly). I atleast try all the games I get, newer games I try to play through to completion or the point that I cannot play them any longer. I usually end up renting a few questionable (quality) games too, so it gets hectic.

[PapaStu]

Wow! There are a lot of people spending a lot on games. I'd like to know, how do find time for them all? Can you really say you sit down with each one and play it until you've gotten all the enjoyment out of it? Papa Stu, if you buy 100 games a year that's a game every 3.5 days. Do you really get as much enjoyment out of each title that you would if you only bought 10? If buying one game gives you "x" amount of happiness, does buying 50 give you 50 times as much happiness?

I don't look at it in an 'max enjoyment = x games' I buy lots cause I am a collector, plain and simple. The systems that i play the most (and focus more of my collecting upon, are modern) so I steer my $$ and attention that way. I've been very good in regards to playing the 360 stuff i've been buying the last year plus. Much better than I have been in comparison to my Wii, DS, PS2,PSP (in regards to modern games).

I do my best to enjoy what I buy, but some of the stuff I get is just crap (buying used well after the release helps relieve the pain). Some enjoyment comes from my ability to get achievement points despite its shittyness, some comes from a games storyline, or the characters, the art style, the online componets. It really depends on the game.

Games of yore were meant for mass replayability thanks to its point of get ting a high score, more of todays games are story driven, and unless its a drawn out RPG or something with a real deep convoluted story a single playthrough is all most people will do. Have I played Halo through on all 4 difficulties, multiple times? Yup. Do I do that with most of my games? Nope, but again, that doesn't take away from my enjoyment of sed game.

[Zing]

I would prefer at least 6 must-have games per year.

I don't know what is going on with Nintendo, but it is extremely hard to find any must-have games. I don't even have a 360 or PS3 to distract me, so I can imagine that anyone with those systems would find it even worse. I mean, I own every must-have Wii game and I only own 4 (not counting Wii Sports and Wii Play). I thought it would be neat to go back and grab every must-have Gamecube game I missed, so I did research and made a list. There were 3 games on it. Three games from a system that is 7 years old. That is absurd. Now I remember why I totally ignored that system.

[Emuaust]

Last year Ive bought something like 180 new release games, WTF I need to play more!

[s1lence]

To be honest, I don't need any. I have hundreds of games I've never touched.


Yet.....I keep buying MOAR..........

I would say there are about 10-15 titles I really want every year....but I purchase many times that. I think I'm over 200 for this year of titles I didn't "need".

[modest9797]

I'd say about 7-8 a year. A good game should keep you playing for weeks.

[Fuyukaze]

need is an odd word.

need to have? none. need to have to make my collection complete? many.
need because i want? all.

being a collector, i tend to get around 300-400 games a year. more often then not, i rarely if ever buy more then 1-3 games new per month. it's just so expensive getting games new. i try not to think about the people that have handled the games when i buy them used as i'd probly worry myself sick just thinking about how disgusting some people can be.

[kedawa]

I couldn't care less if no games got released for the next year.
The newest game I'm currently playing is at least two years old.

[Raedon]

This a trick question? :) I WANT THEM ALL!! ... for .50 cents mint.8-)

[josekortez]

I think most of us can agree that we spend too much on games, or at least, more in a few months than most people do all year.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

[videogameking26]

I try to buy 5-10 big budget titles every year, owning all 3 consoles well that tends to overpass everytime, like this year haven't done bad with only buying about 20+ games so far, can see me buy another 5-10 before the end of the year. Also in my mind I have games that are must buys for me, when a game hits in that catgory I usually buy it day it launches or a week or so after, like this fall I have dozens I want to buy but have tried to put 10 must haves on a piece of paper and just focus on them this year, buy all the rest next year when the price drops a little.

[Nature Boy]

Need is a funny word. I don't really need new games per se, although I do want to want enough of them to justify my console purchase in the first place.

I'm a slow gamer, so I could probably be happy with four titles a year and never run out of something to do. I buy more than that though - this year alone I've picked up The Orange Box, GTA IV, CivRev, Crackdown, and COD 4, and I'm looking at Rock Band 2 and Fable II in the fall (by then I'll have beaten GTA IV and hopefully Half Life 2).

[Rogmeister]

I feel the same way...we don't need new games. I actually already have more than I can ever finish, probably. That's why I don't really feel the need to get a PS3 or a Wii...or even an Xbox 360.

[namzep]

I buy very few titles when they first come out and generally wait for prices to drop. I think the only full price modern system games that I've picked up this year are: Etrian Odyssey II, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Furu Furu Park (budget title and it sucks hard), House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return, and the Simpsons (PS3). I did pick up LEGO Indiana Jones for the DS but that was used with coupons and my edge card. Other than that, I've mostly bought used games though I have bought a few new on sale games (Time Crisis 4 is the only one that comes to mind immeadiatly). I'm lately mostly concentrating on picking up DS games that I missed, having picked one up only in the last year.

[Vectorman0]

I probably buy 5-10 full priced games, brand new per year on average. ($50-$60 for consoles, $30-$40 for handhelds) I'm more inclined to go after cheaper games like $5-10 XBLA games, $20 budget games like Space Invaders Extreme, or pick a game up used (or even new) later after its release so I pay significantly less. This is only for current generation games, PS2 and newer.

How many of these do I need? Probably about 5 or so to keep me busy. I probably don't even play a quarter of the current generation games I buy.

[Tommy]

I have to buy games either on e-bay or thru friends at work. I usually buy used games and dvd's about 3 times a week. Don't have any tv stations so we need something to entertain us. More or less or game/dvd collection has grown rather large in the last few months due to this.

[Iron Draggon]

at least 21... that works out to one every other week... and enough time to play every new game for 2 weeks before moving on to the next new game... that should be enough time to beat all those games too... if only the games that I'm interested in would be released precisely in those increments... but it usually works out to more like 24 games or so a year... a couple dozen games released in small batches at the usual times, plus a few oddball releases... :D

it's a shame that we're still slaves to the industry's habit of dumping most of their new games on us all at one time during the holiday season, instead of spacing them out evenly throughout the year... we get bombarded with way too many games to keep up with during the 4th quarter, and spend the rest of the year trying to catch up... it's frustrating... but the deep discounts in the 1st quarter make it easy to get caught up in time for the usual Memorial Day batch, which is supposed to get us through the summer, while we save up all our money for the next holiday blitz... with very few oddball releases to look forward to in the meantime... I'm so tired of that kind of marketing... SAVE SAVE SAVE so you can SPEND SPEND SPEND during 1/4th of the year... you'd think the industry would figure out from all the preorders we're placing that we're spending most of every year with what little money we have burning holes in our pockets, wishing that we could play all the games we've preordered RIGHT NOW, instead of having to wait for them all to be held back for the usual times... delayed just to keep us all slaves to the holidays... or rushed out the door in a pathetic state to meet their stupid holiday deadlines!