It is official: 2024 is The Year of the Backlog. At least it is for me.
Every so often I am consumed by the lingering thought of my staggeringly massive backlog. It follows a cycle. I am at peace and all is well in the world. My brain decides to fire off some neurons and it pops a thought into my head like, “You keep buying a bunch of goddamn games, huh?” Realization sets in. I do and I have a lot of them I never played. I then think back to my brain and say, “Well how about this? I’ll just play all the stuff I own and I won’t buy any more games.” At this point I have to note that my body is convulsing, I’m drowning in sweat, and my eyes are twitching. We are in agreement. This is a good idea. I feel sane. Once again, all is well in the world.
A week later I haven’t started on my backlog and I’ve bought a new game on sale. We do this again in a few months.
The Art of the “Deal”
Over the last few years this realization has occurred to me and I do tell myself I will get to my backlog. In more recent times, the thought of taking a year off buying games has become more frequent. But talk is cheap, and so are games. Despite telling myself I should take a break from buying and instead focus on playing, that never happens.
The thrill of the deal is far too appealing. The Wario64 notification hits my phone and I need that hit. “A game that came out five months ago has a price glitch and it’s only $20? I’ve been kind of wanting it. It’s such a good deal. I should get it.” And I do. I buy it and sit on it without ever playing. Eventually the game is part of a Humble Bundle for $15.
You live and you (don’t) learn.
Time to Stop Playing Games
Deals have always been my biggest weakness. The one true hurdle to tackling my backlog. With the fear of losing out on a deal, I buy and buy games. Which, as you can imagine, means my backlog grows rapidly. Far faster than I am able to play the games as I buy them. Soon we’ll dive into the numbers, but for context, I own 1,391 games on Steam. No, trust me, I… I know. This isn’t all impulse buys, but a majority of my purchases are due to that. Which is why my main idea to tackle my backlog is to no longer grow it. Clever, huh?
This will not be a perfect system. I have already conceded a few ideas to this rule before it even began, instead of deciding to staunchly follow it as law. So let’s go over the basics of The Year of the Backlog.
The general idea is to not spend money on games from January 1st to December 31st of 2024. An entire calendar year without purchasing a new game*, no exceptions. Eagle eyed readers, and those who read the previous paragraph will notice an asterisk, which means there are exceptions to this rule. I want to allow myself to not have to wait to play my hugely anticipated titles. Which as of publishing is only Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. This does go against the entire idea of the backlog year, but I feel there are few games that will feel important enough to breakthrough this exception. Since this isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, I believe I can make the exceptions where I see fit.
The Other Exceptions Where I See Fit
Oh wow, I really got us here fast. Truth is, I know my backlog will still increase throughout the year, it’s somewhat unavoidable. As a subscriber to Humble Choice (Use that link to sign up. Not an ad!), there will be new monthly games that I will own, and some could join the backlog list. If you’re wondering if the $11.99 a month will be tracked, it won’t be. It is lovingly paid for by someone else for me, and I am technically not spending my money on the subscription. Loopholes!
The other major exception, and addition to my backlog will be via Xbox Game Pass. I am a years long subscriber to the service and with the addition of games monthly, I may find new titles to want to play. These games will be added to the backlog, but won’t have to be purchased. What luck!
You might also be thinking to yourself, “But Kevin, it’s a subscription, won’t that count against your spending?” You’re right, but also horribly wrong. Remember how much I love deals? Well, I’ve pre-purchased three years of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. I won’t need to renew until 2026, which means I won’t be paying that monthly. Another fun loophole!
One final exception I have been debating has been allowing myself to buy DLC for games I currently own. This could result in a new item for the backlog, but it won’t always be the case. Despite this, I think it would be fair to at least keep track of the purchases to see how DLC will add up throughout the year. This will keep me honest.
Those are the four exceptions I can currently think of for this backlog year. To quickly recap:
1. Rare purchases for must play titles. (Maybe we’ll set a monetary limit?)
2. Humble Choice Subscription
3. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Subscription
4. DLC
Data Dump
In my upcoming post, I will fully prepare you for what a near-impossible task this will be for me. I will need plenty of time to gather all of the games I need to play, on each platform, and get a list together. The most daunting library will be that of my Steam profile. As this is an account I have had since 2008, I’ve been able to grow my library quite large. It also helps that PC games are PC games, and playing older titles is less of a challenge. If I included games from the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii/U era… well, let’s not think of that. There are some games I will just never play.
For Steam, as I have mentioned, my library sits at 1,391 games. Do I have the intention to play even half of these games? Absolutely not. I don’t know what half of this (and I am sorry to some developers) crap is. But a free game is a free game. Who am I to say no? One specific collection I created, aptly titled “Backlog,” has 287 games added to it. That is just a tad over twenty percent of my entire library. These are the games, minus VR titles, I am interested in playing.
Two hundred and eighty seven games. Just on a single platform. Already a hefty backlog. I will also need to take stock of my Switch, PlayStation 5, and Game Pass games to have the full picture of exactly how many games I’m wanting to tackle. More on this to come.
Checking In/Out
During this entire process I am going to be posting updates on this endeavor on this website along with a few other places. I’ll have game progress, purchasing updates, more in-depth data, reviews, etc. You name it, and I will sure as… probably talk about it. This journey will span my website, Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, and the remnants of [REDACTED]. I’m excited to start this and see where I — nay, we, will end up as we move into 2025. I won’t be the first person to ever tackle a massive backlog and I won’t be the last. But I hope you will join me on this mission and enjoy all of the various, marketable content I can produce along the way.
To follow along the Year of the Backlog, click the links below and be sure to follow each account:
Kevin is Write: Year of the Backlog
Kevin is Write 