 why is it extremely likely that you just like me own more games than we have time to play why is it that there are probably games in our shelves that we have never booted up or maybe games that we bought digitally that have never been launched or even if we have touched and launched every single game that we own many of those games we might not have spent more than a few minutes playing now obviously there this is beyond buyers remorse right you always have that happen where you bought a game you played it a little bit you didn't enjoy it so you stop playing it that's a completely separate thing valid whatever it's just that's just like buying movies that's just like you know watching a TV show you watch an episode you don't like it you don't watch anymore okay like that's obviously the most obvious you know thing in the world you bought it you tried it you don't like it okay but that's not what we're really talking about right I as an example bought Starlink Battle for Atlas I bought Octopath Traveler I love those games a lot when I do play them I really enjoy them but why don't I play them more often why am I constantly going back to games like Fortnite why am I constantly going back to Breath of the Wild or NBA why am I choosing to play all these other games instead of playing games that I own that I have yet to complete playing games that I know I enjoy playing but I never feel a desire to actually play why is it that we own way more games than any of us realistically have time to play especially in an era of gaming when there are so many games that are kind of like Fortnite where they're perpetual they don't end so why do we keep adding more and more to our library instead of just finishing what we have before moving on to what's next there's an interesting article actually on this about five years ago on Kotaku of all places by Ethan Levy I want to go over and this deals more with Steam but it kind of gets into some of the psyche behind some of this stuff so first let's take a look at that article so it says we're buying more PC games than we can play let's just go through the article a bit here says as another steam holiday sale comes to a close I spent roughly a hundred dollars to purchase 22 games in the past two months I picked up three humble bundles not a month ago I spent around $50 on 11 games in the steam fall sale by the time the next steam sale rolls around I will be lucky if I have played half of those games I have a problem I am a compulsive collector and after 1400 gamers took my recent survey on their game buying habits I know that I'm not alone and let's look at his statistics here so he has 1400 gamers with the game buying habits 79% of those gamers enjoy the feeling of getting a good deal so sales play a role in this I think this plays a role in anything a lot of us will go to Walmart will go to Kohl's as an example operates on that where we'll buy a bunch of things we really don't need just because they're on sale so that is obviously a driving motive motivator where this is there's a thing or where we think we're getting a good deal on something even if we're never gonna play it we end up buying it if that piece of clothing I see that at one point I kind of wanted but now it's 50% off I'm gonna buy it even if I never end up wearing it I have clothes in my wardrobe I've never put on because of compulsive purchasing like this so that's obviously a factor here and I said the average gamer bought 60% of their games on sale I think obviously this might deal more with PC but I think it's a true even in general I know a lot of us do pick up games at launch but some of us do wait for sales some of you guys might you know might be purchasing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate or something right now on Amazon which it's now $4 off from when it was at launch that would be a sale it's a small one but it's still a sale I like to says the average gamer purchased between 11 and 25 games in the last 12 months and they have not played 40% of those games so I've looked back on my library and I don't know that there's any game I haven't played but there are some games I haven't even played for an hour full admittance there are games in my library over the past year that I have not put in more than an hour so why why is that I don't tend to buy games I think are bad what what's going on so 30% of gamers have 50 plus games in the pile of shame which is basically we haven't played these games yet on the average gamer buys just 20% of games at full price all right and that's how we could just compile all the statistics says my pile of shame is daunting nearly 200 unplayed games on Steam over 50 box games across six consoles and three handles 50 classics on good old games a constantly growing library of digital games thanks to PlayStation Plus in my fantasy world I intend on playing all of these games in that mythical someday it's okay I tell myself when I buy Papa Waio along with six other indie games for under $5 each it's because I want to show my support look at that want to show my support interesting fully knowing I will not have time to play these games for months with each newly acquired humble bundle I remind myself that I am not doing this just for the games but the support charity at the same time as the developer as I impulse buy another triple a game that has just dropped to the $5 mark I intone the price is too good to pass up these quotes which echo my personal justifications come from comments left by some of the 1400 gamers who took the survey I love buying games in a discount building a collection has overtaken playing as my hobby so what I get out of this data that he collected and granted this is five-year-old data obviously you know we can conduct some of my own surveys here maybe come to a better conclusion in the future I don't know that the data he has there's really any different than today though it doesn't explain why we buy games but it does explain that it is a common occurrence that so many of us buy games we don't have time to play and I do think there is that thing in our mind where if we buy a game at full price we are more likely to play it at least whether it's a completion or not I don't know but we are more likely to play it every game I bought for the full $60 price tag on switch I have put at least 10 hours and actually just went over this through a live stream the other day when someone tried to call me out and say that I don't play the games I buy and you know and they and they define that as playing playing the games for at least 10 hours well every $60 purchased game I played I've played for more than 10 hours it turns out switch back me up on that so but there are games that I bought on sale that I haven't civilization six got that on sale got it used have hardly even touched it there's other games out there especially indie titles where maybe I bought them at full price but they were so cheap I don't really like feel like I need to play it right like they're kind of put on the back burner oh as I'll play this eventually kind of purchase and then that eventuality never actually manifests I honestly think that as a community I don't know if this is a problem I think this is consumerism I think this is impulse buying there's obviously collectors out there that care more about the act of collecting games than playing games but I don't think it's just that even a collector's mentality I think there is a large chunk of gamers that love the conversation around games more than they actually enjoy playing games I bet there are some people watching this video right now that enjoy watching my content more than they enjoy playing games and that's interesting because my content exists because of video games but some people enjoy that community they enjoy the conversation they enjoy the debate they enjoy the industry and they enjoy the excitement around games more than they might actually enjoy playing them and I think that is really a component of if you bought a $60 game at launch and you still haven't played it chances are you are one of those people I'm just venturing the guests that you are one of those people that if you bought a $60 game and you didn't play it or you've hardly touched it chances are you are that person you are that person that cares way more about the hype around games the conversation around games the community around games then about actually playing them I think this is really interesting data to look at and I'll link to the kataku article down below if you want to dive through more developer stuff I didn't want to read everything you wrote but I honestly think that this is a conversation that we should have because I want to know your guys's thoughts on why you like if you are a person who has a back catalog of games that you just know like you might keep telling yourself you're gonna get to him but it just keeps growing and growing and growing why do you keep buying new games instead of finishing what you have first why what part of our brain is telling us hey look you know what I have a whole bunch of new games to play that I haven't touched yet that are on my switch right now that are on my Xbox that are on my PC why do I need to buy this new thing right now why don't I go finish those things then buy this new thing and heck by the time you get to that new thing it could even be cheaper so I don't know why I think is the conclusion I have here I do know that there's consumerism tricks involved from sales I do know that there's impulse buys I do know that there's an endorphin release sometimes when we buy something brand-new me get excited around it how many of you guys like going to you know buy physical games and buy consoles in person instead of online because you enjoy the rush of midnight launches and all that like the excitement and the buzz around it more than the act of playing it I know that I felt that way I've been more excited at times when I purchased and picked up a game and talked about the game then I was I don't know a few days later after playing it and that to me you could talk about games being overhyped I suppose but I don't even think that's it because none of the games I play I felt like I was lied to in the hype cycle for the most part I mean obviously there's exceptions out there followed out 76 anyone but I do think there's a part of us that doesn't comprehend how little time we have to play and maybe it's because we throw ourselves back to when we were kids when we were kids even if you were in sports even if you were an ace student and whatever a lot of us found a way to have a ton of free time to play video games especially in the summer and we just play what we had sometimes we get new games we play the heck out of that and I think as adults we feel like we're gonna have that time again because hey all we do is work how hard is it to work and find time there's a lot of other responsibilities as an adult besides work that you didn't worry about as a kid as a kid it's like I got practice I got games I got music I got concerts oh and hey look I got schoolwork but that was it maybe a job once you were 15 16 but like that's it like after you were done you weren't thinking how am I paying my rent this month how am I gonna be able to afford my my health insurance let alone the insurance on my new car oh I need to go get this fixed on this thing oh pipe burst in my house oh I have children now like there's all these things you don't think about or worry about when you're a kid that lends to you having maybe more disposable income and potentially the free time to play as many games as you want that I think plays a role but is that it because some of you guys are young in college and in high school watching and you have that free time and you still buy the games and you still don't play them so I'm actually curious what are your thoughts on this why do you think that gamers on the whole buy more games than we actually have time to play anyways folks I'm Nathaniel Ruffa Jans from Nintendo Prime you guys let me know what you think about this down in the comments below be sure to enter our Nintendo Switch Super Smash Bros Ultimate giveaway through the Gleam.io link I want to thank all of you guys for tuning in and I will catch you in the next video