I may well regret creating a forum topic, but for the moment let's just see how it goes.

So, gaming droughts. I'm sure they happen with most consoles from time to time (certainly, pretty much every console at least has a dry spell in its first 6-12 months as developers get their first games out). I've noticed talk of a drought at the moment on Wii U - it's getting very little third-party support and two of its three big Xmas titles (Mario Tennis and that Animal Crossing amiibo whatever thing) have been critically panned, meaning its Xmas lineup is basically riding on Xenoblade, a couple of Virtual Console/indie releases, and not much else.

However, with the amount of complaints I've seen about it, I'm left wondering if most of the Internet has a lot of spare time, or only started gaming this year, or all of the above.

Question: how many new games do you need in a year? Between Wii U and PC, I've already probably picked up more than a dozen titles this year, and even if there hadn't been a single game to release this year that I wanted to play, I'd have a backlog of dozens, maybe hundreds, of games I haven't gotten around to. There's nothing new I want to play at the moment - I'm holding out on Fallout 4 until it gets some bug fixes and a GOTY edition, and the Wii U hasn't had a ton of games I care about lately - but that's no big deal. I'm finally getting around to Baten Kaitos Origins (which had been sitting on my bookshelf for about eight years), I'm getting through Yoshi's Woolly World with my partner, I'm tweaking a few levels for Super Mario Maker and I'm dipping into Sunless Sea, which I got in a Humble Bundle ages ago. A month or two without exciting new releases is a chance to catch up on everything I missed.

Then there's the time issue. I work a lot, and while I love gaming I can only really spare 10-20 hours a week at most. If games I wanted to play came out at a faster rate than they do at the moment, I'd never get a chance to get around to everything (hell, I probably won't even with things as they are at the moment). When I hear people complain about about gaming droughts, I find myself wondering how much time they've got to play games, or how few games there must be out there that they're interested in.

So, how about you? Are you fazed by gaming droughts? How big is your backlog? How many games do you reckon you manage to burn through in a year?

I grew very frustrated by the game droughts on the Wii U. My solution was to buy a PS4. Now I have so much to play that can't envision ever having to deal with a drought again. I know Nintendo fans don't like to hear that, but it's basically impossible to only own a Wii U at this point. There's just nothing to play.

I have a lot of must-play games, but also a lot of unplayed games and unfinished titles. Also I usually don't have tham much time to gaming anyway, most of my hours are concentrated in small periods of time.

And if I need  a new game desperately, I can always pirate something. So no problem XD

Besides my huge backlog, I do tend to replay games a lot, so droughts don't really affect me.

P.S. In regards to the Wii U, Indies have become my third party support, so I really never feel there is a lack of games

My feelings exactly.

Droughts are usually not a big issue for me, mainly cause I am usually busy anyways, so I'm not playing video games every day, that and I already have a fairly big backlog.

Ps plus killed droughts for me. I've always got a backlog of good games to play.

OP atomic, this comment makes me wanna chuckle. x D I wondered that too.

I have heard a lot about the game droubts and people complaining about it, while praising how much like the PS4 gets, and I sit hear and wonder a bit "Do people have a lot of spare time on their hands?" I live on the Wii U and 3DS (and other older consoles) and I never had an issue with the lack of games on the Wii U nor any console. Even with the Wii U's sparse library, I still can't finish all those games. And I spend a lot of extra time on games with lots to do, like Splatoon, Smash, MK8, and Mario Maker. So yeah, I am good.

Though the drought is an issue in general. Some people can clear thru games quick and then be out of things to play. So there needs to be more games to compensate that. I would say, play more of what you have or go fishing on the Wii U market, but not everyone will like those games nor want to continue the games they have. x )

I could use a 12 month game drought to catch up a bit.

I was hoping to get to FC4, DA:Inquisition, Captain Toad, Dreamfall chapters, Metro redux and Watch dogs before the holiday season, didn't happen. Instead I added Destiny, Bloodborne, Batman, Splatoon, MGS5, Jotun and the Journey down to the pile.
Then there are all the ps+ titles I've been adding to ps3 and ps4 over the year. Some look pretty interesting yet at this point I might as well cancel ps+ so they stop filling up my hdd :)


What did I play this year (for significant amount of time),
Elite Dangerous, The Order, DriveClub, Project cars, GTA5, The Witcher 3, Armikrog, Nom Nom Galaxy, Grim Fandango, Journey, Everybody has gone to the rapture, The vanishing of Ethan Carter, Minecraft, Tearaway unfolded, Mario maker, The Crew, Driveclub Bikes and Fallout 4.

I might have made a bit better headway if I hadn't spend 3 months on Elite Dangerous.

Btw I do play every day for a couple hours. Games are getting too long nowadays.

Compared to you lot, i probably play games a lot less. I do not play many games and mostly not interested in these modern games nowadays. I replay older games much more than purchase newer ones, i'm simply not interested. Xenoblade X will be the only game i will purchase since DA I on PS4, and i do not even own a PS4 anymore.