Polygon’s Editor’s Letter is a column from Editor-in-Chief Chris Plante that reflects on the video game and entertainment industries, their communities, and Polygon itself. New editions appear in the first week of each month.
Last month, I wrote about how the endless stream of “too many games” has caused existential problems for game makers. This month, I’ll focus on the other side of the equation: the audience. The people who play all of these new games. Or, as a recent survey tells us, the people who don’t play them.
Abundance should be a boon for the average video game fan. Unfettered competition pushes prices down, particularly on PC, where each month players can grab bundles containing dozens (sometimes hundreds) of games for less than $20. And even the fanciest, freshest games often get discounted within weeks of launch.
Better still, as creators seek untouched corners of the market, their target audiences can be more varied. Wish to build a cozy castle diorama? Want a hardcore SWAT simulator or an anime Stardew Valley-like? Crave an ode to Brazilian bootleg boomer shooters of the 1990s built on actual 1990s tech? If you have an itch, odds are it can be scratched.
And yet, a diminutive portion of the overall gaming audience plays new games. According to a report from Newzoo, in 2023 players spent 77% of their playtime on games three years or older. Much of the time players spent on new games went to annualized franchises, like Call of Duty, Madden, and EA FC. A paltry 8% of overall playtime in 2023 went to new games not tied to big, yearly IP.
In 2024, when someone sits down to play a video game, they can either spend money on a promising but unknown new game, or they can choose from their massive backlog of owned games. Or, they might return to a live-service game like League of Legends or Fortnite that continues to provide a familiar dopamine surge week after week, year after year. To play a new game is to willingly take a risk in terms of one’s money, time, and happiness.
Thus, we have 8% of total playtime going toward new games: a tiny slice of pie from which the thousands of developers each year fight for a bite. Ryan Rigney, gaming comms veteran and author of the illuminating Push to Talk newsletter, has been digging into this problem (and this unsettling data) for the past few weeks. I strongly recommend you read his piece “Are Old Games Killing New Games?”
In that newsletter, Rigney uses Arco, his personal favorite game of the year, which at the time of writing this piece has a modest 623 reviews on Steam, as an example of how a truly great game can fall through the cracks. The example hit me like a rock to the forehead. Despite Arco being one of my most anticipated games, despite receiving advance code from a publicist, despite having a weekly video game podcast that requires me to sample dozens of new games a year, I only now have gotten around to playing this game.
And frankly, even with everything going for it, Arco could have just as easily collected dust indefinitely on my exponentially elongating to-do list.
How to enjoy new video games in the Age of Abundance
What does this mean for you? As the headline promised (or threatened?), you too won’t play many of 2024’s best games. Time is against you. The number of hours can’t fit the surplus of great new releases.
Assuming we all accept that to be true, I thought it might help if I shared some strategies I’ve learned over the years for making the most of my video game time. As someone professionally expected to have a grasp on the vast majority of video games released, plus the entirety of gaming history, I’ve been wrestling with this challenge for some time.
Be mindful of where your gaming time goes: This is my number one tip when people ask me how I play so many games. The answer is that I play the stuff I like, and I skip or bail on the stuff I don’t. For the past decade, major video game publishers have worked tirelessly to create “forever” games that use habit-forming hooks to lock in players indefinitely. If you want to play the same game every day for years on end, that’s fine and your prerogative! Alternatively, if you want to play new games more, then take a break from your “forever” game of choice. You might find, with some distance, it had become a chore rather than a treat.
Watch streams and playthroughs: Ashley Bardhan recently argued that watching a video game isn’t so different from playing it. I agree. This guidance won’t surprise anyone under the age of 30. But many gamers in the millennial demographic (or older) have yet to make a habit of watching streams on Twitch or playthroughs on YouTube. If this is your first time, search for a playthrough of a new game that interests you on YouTube, skim the headlines and thumbnail images for a style that matches your own, and give it a try!
Find communities that match your pace: Similar to watching games, reading about games is a great way to follow games. Just be sure to find a community that moves at your tempo. If you want a trillion messages and the latest info, a game’s official or unofficial Discord can be great. Want the highlights, try a subreddit. And if you prefer to keep up to date on the games community as a whole, rather than one game, I recommend Polygon.com. Naturally.
Accept that you can’t know everything: For the first few decades of video game culture, the most hardcore gamers took pride in having an encyclopedic knowledge of the industry. Not only had they played every game, but they also knew its developer, publisher, and — if it came from Japan — the original title and release date. Because game developers of the ’80s and ’90s only released so many games, exhaustive knowledge could be cultivated. The NES had 1,377 games. But then the PS4 had 3,399 games. Steam laps both those numbers each year. In 2024, acquiring an all-encompassing knowledge of video games isn’t possible. And the pursuit of it is like trying to catch every fish in the ocean.
Before I wrap, let’s talk about one more game.
Last month, developer Mossmouth published what Game File author Stephen Totilo wrote “might be the most 2024 game anyone can play this year.” If you can even call it a game. UFO 50 is a package carrying 50 stand-alone, complete games from some of the most brilliant game designers alive.
UFO 50’s a masterpiece and the vast majority of gamers will never play it. A tiny fraction of those who do will manage to play all 50 games. And an infinitesimal percentage of the people on Earth will finish the game in its entirety.
The project is a microcosm of the problem that faces players. With so many good games in UFO 50, its players must approach the game as they would the entire video game ecosystem. Be mindful of your time and your priorities. Dabble! Don’t like a game? Drop it! Be comfortable knowing you don’t have to play all 50 games to completion to enjoy UFO 50. In fact, you don’t have to play any of them.
Weeks after its release, fans have come together to solve its mysteries and celebrate their favorite games within the game on Reddit, Twitch, and YouTube. They’ve created lore explainers, role-played within its fictional history, and carried the experience of the game beyond the confines of the software.
UFO 50 is also a capsule of the ways the gaming community has adapted. You won’t play many of 2024’s best games. And yet, with a little effort, you can experience most of their magic.
About Author
