Am I getting bored of video games?

[TypeRDC5]

The one thing driving me further away from gaming is the quantity of buggy, unfinished games which are released for full price these days.

Back in the day if MGS2, GT3, GTA Vice City etc were being released I would skip school to buy it day one and play it, these days I known longer buy a game day one due to bugs, unfinished games and content locked behind DLC, its day light robbery.

Some companies don't even fix the bugs so you end up paying for a full price game and its broken from the start but you can't request a refund if you bought a physical copy! Only the gaming industry can get away this..

 

[mika haka]

The one thing driving me further away from gaming is the quantity of buggy, unfinished games which are released for full price these days.

Back in the day if MGS2, GT3, GTA Vice City etc were being released I would skip school to buy it day one and play it, these days I known longer buy a game day one due to bugs, unfinished games and content locked behind DLC, its day light robbery.

Some companies don't even fix the bugs so you end up paying for a full price game and its broken from the start but you can't request a refund if you bought a physical copy! Only the gaming industry can get away this..

Spot on. Look at cyberpunk 2077. Biggest release in decades and it was a disaster.

I cant think of one reason to get a game on release anymore unless you truly love being a beta tester. Which people actually pay for these days.

 

[Northstar]

The one thing driving me further away from gaming is the quantity of buggy, unfinished games which are released for full price these days.

Back in the day if MGS2, GT3, GTA Vice City etc were being released I would skip school to buy it day one and play it, these days I known longer buy a game day one due to bugs, unfinished games and content locked behind DLC, its day light robbery.

Some companies don't even fix the bugs so you end up paying for a full price game and its broken from the start but you can't request a refund if you bought a physical copy! Only the gaming industry can get away this..

Spot on. Look at cyberpunk 2077. Biggest release in decades and it was a disaster.

I cant think of one reason to get a game on release anymore unless you truly love being a beta tester. Which people actually pay for these days.

Both these posts seem to be pinning for "the good old days" that never really existed.

There have always been games released in buggy unfinished states, thing is though, just like every other media form people really only remember the really good and the exceptionally bad. Everything else gets lost in the wasteland known as the forgotten past. At least now if a game has a bug you can get a patch instead of having to buy a newer version of it (looking at you Gran Turismo 2).

 

[Wolfe]

Both these posts seem to be pinning for "the good old days" that never really existed...

If you ask me, more like lamenting a mere fraction of the industry, pining for a sort of experience that is perfectly alive and well; positively booming and full of promise, even. Now that I am hanging around in some gamedev corners, seeing the increasingly rapid evolution of indie development and the tools for it, I am 100% optimistic about the future of gaming. I also follow major developers who have most definitely earned my confidence in pre-ordering their products with few concerns, and no regrets in practice.

I know some bugs from the old days, but in any game worth playing you know it was absolutely nothing like turds that get shipped on disc today. Yet those turds are just those turds.

I'm sorry for repeating myself on this, but I play games that didn't have day-one patches. Games that have never gotten a patch, and don't need one. Games in which I swear I have never observed a bug (and I know how to prod for them). Games that aren't boring. Games that are literally like "the good old days" because they are retro. Games that supersede "the good old days" by integrating newer innovations. Games that defy unwelcome trends, whatever you don't like. Games that have revived genres the industry left for dead in the '00s -- some to the point of over-saturation and an unfortunate lack of visibility, spoiling consumers for choice. The Switch eShop and Steam are jam-packed toyboxes full of gems...between the inevitable waves of shovelware. So dig around a bit.

I can't relate. I see the games people complain about. I don't buy them. In the '90s and '00s I played tons of games published by companies whose games I generally do not pay much attention to anymore -- like EA, Activision, Ubisoft, and Square, to name a few. I don't need them. What else can I say?


On the subject of adulthood, life, etc., that's already settled. Gaming is my medium. I play games like my wife reads books, like our parents' generation watches TV, like younger generations watch streaming video. That's what I have to say to anyone who would tell me I should have grown out of playing them by now. Why would I grow out of it? People don't put down the other mediums. Gaming is one more.

 

[mika haka]

Both these posts seem to be pinning for "the good old days" that never really existed.

There have always been games released in buggy unfinished states, thing is though, just like every other media form people really only remember the really good and the exceptionally bad. Everything else gets lost in the wasteland known as the forgotten past. At least now if a game has a bug you can get a patch instead of having to buy a newer version of it (looking at you Gran Turismo 2).

Its far worse now than it was back then. Yes bugs always existed but the state of a brand new release nowadays is embarrassing. 99% of games release now with a day one patch which shows they werent ready to release it.

 

[Moglet]

Its far worse now than it was back then. Yes bugs always existed but the state of a brand new release nowadays is embarrassing. 99% of games release now with a day one patch which shows they werent ready to release it.

The bigger games mostly release with a day 1 patch because of the amount of time required to go through age ratings submissions and certification processes with platform holders. Age ratings submissions require the launch version of the game to be submitted and some of them can take over a month to be processed before you even get to platform cert. During this time the game is still being worked on because otherwise they'd be sat around doing nothing (or trying to work on DLC content only to have to drop it to switch to hotfix bug fixes which is just a messy way of working). The work done during this period then forms the day 1 patch and can also contribute to follow-up patches alongside hotfixes after launch.

That's not to say that every game has a day 1 patch for this reason of course, some are just unfinished (I'm looking at you, Cyberpunk) but I don't think it's fair to say that a game launching with a day 1 patch proves that they weren't ready to release it.

 

[Wolfe]

I have a funny thing to share. About 20 years ago my parents predicted and expected, well...what I'm doing now, and they gifted me the book, Game Design: Secrets of the Sages (2nd Edition). I unearthed it in a moving box a while ago and I've been picking it up now and then to skim around in random passages. I stumbled onto one that is very relevant to this conversation.

First, this one highlights the truth in what @Northstar said, considering this edition of the book was published in 2000:

It has been mentioned innumerable times throughout this book that play testing a game is an extremely critical process that must be performed thoroughly before a product's release. So why then are there so many bugs in computer games? Why does it seem there are multiple patches for each game these days? Are designers getting lazy in this department, or are they taking advantage of the Internet as an effective distribution method for patches?

And then, get a load of this joke.

...game publishers are starting to understand, however, [that] a gamer who is dissatisfied with a company's product may not purchase from that company again.

 

[mika haka]

Exactly what happened with me. No longer buy day one becuase its just not worth it.

Too many games are full of issues that i can save money on and also not ruin my experience playing a game i looked forward to.

To me its just not worth playing an unfinished game as the difference between the patched version and new version is night and day.

 

[TypeRDC5]

Spot on. Look at cyberpunk 2077. Biggest release in decades and it was a disaster.

I cant think of one reason to get a game on release anymore unless you truly love being a beta tester. Which people actually pay for these days.

Cyberpunk is the perfect example, feel sorry for the people who paid full price for a game that will never run as it should (nevermind all the bugs) digitally and cannot get a refund.

Both these posts seem to be pinning for "the good old days" that never really existed.

There have always been games released in buggy unfinished states, thing is though, just like every other media form people really only remember the really good and the exceptionally bad. Everything else gets lost in the wasteland known as the forgotten past. At least now if a game has a bug you can get a patch instead of having to buy a newer version of it (looking at you Gran Turismo 2).

The released quality was far higher back in the day not to mention these days you sometimes need a patch to fix the patch.

I understand games are much bigger and more complicated but if solve companies can do a good job there's no reason most of them can't.
The gaming industry has boomed over the last decade or more and the quality over quantity is there to see and everyone was a piece of pie.

 

[Veinz]

Whats turning me off of gaming (besides broken and unfinished games) is developers going out of their way to close the skill gap in multiplayer. A good example of this is COD Warzone, there is so much 🤬 in that game that it just detracts the Battle Royale experience. Perks, kill streaks, heartbeat sensors, self revives, all unnecessary bloat put into the game for bottom tier players. Normal multiplayer in cod games is just a complete waste of time considering barely anyone plays the objectives anyway, and yet the game gives them more points for playing this way.

Not to mention it usually takes them months to balance any overpowered weapons or fix bugs. The store is almost never broken though, and when it is it gets fixed almost immediately.

 

[ctdc67]

I make sure I don't burn myself out by playing a variety of games and of course having other hobbies

 

[Wolfe]

Cyberpunk is the perfect example, feel sorry for the people who paid full price for a game that will never run as it should (nevermind all the bugs) digitally and cannot get a refund.

Cyberpunk is a perfect example of seeing that coming before it launched. I haven't even played The Witcher and I knew what to expect just by hearing about those games.

I find it pretty easy to navigate around the bad apples given the abundance of complaints about previous games and the studios responsible for them. I mean, it only happens again and again and again. I do get stuck buying a bad apple once in a while from a lack of alternatives -- Project CARS and Milestone games, for example.

 

[Moglet]

Whats turning me off of gaming (besides broken and unfinished games) is developers going out of their way to close the skill gap in multiplayer. A good example of this is COD Warzone, there is so much 🤬 in that game that it just detracts the Battle Royale experience. Perks, kill streaks, heartbeat sensors, self revives, all unnecessary bloat put into the game for bottom tier players. Normal multiplayer in cod games is just a complete waste of time considering barely anyone plays the objectives anyway, and yet the game gives them more points for playing this way.

Not to mention it usually takes them months to balance any overpowered weapons or fix bugs. The store is almost never broken though, and when it is it gets fixed almost immediately.

Perks, kill streaks and heartbeat sensors have been around since the CoD games in the early 2010s. Even if they are designed to give new players a bit of a boost there's nothing wrong with that, games should be for everyone, not for experienced players only. Even the best players had to start somewhere.

 

[TypeRDC5]

Whats turning me off of gaming (besides broken and unfinished games) is developers going out of their way to close the skill gap in multiplayer. A good example of this is COD Warzone, there is so much 🤬 in that game that it just detracts the Battle Royale experience. Perks, kill streaks, heartbeat sensors, self revives, all unnecessary bloat put into the game for bottom tier players. Normal multiplayer in cod games is just a complete waste of time considering barely anyone plays the objectives anyway, and yet the game gives them more points for playing this way.

Not to mention it usually takes them months to balance any overpowered weapons or fix bugs. The store is almost never broken though, and when it is it gets fixed almost immediately.

Dont get me started on warzone, the potential to be the best ever battle royale is there but most of what you said plus dead silence and stopping stop it being what it could be.

Free game however so cant complain about wasting my hard earned money on it.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

IMO I think a lot of it is contextual. Back in the day when you were a kid everything felt new and you had no worries, so everything just feels fun & fresh. These days you get home tired from work, and games just gets more and more complex and longer to finish, it becomes a chore sometimes just to unlock/grind the next level/character/equipment/car. I find the first few hours of buying a new game are still fun, but then you always have this middle bit where you already understand the mechanics, and you're just on the long road levelling up XP/rep/credits/whatever, and it gets tedious quick. My mind often wonders whether my time is better spent doing something else more productive, but my completionist side just can't let it go

Most games once I get 100% I'm bored to death with it and never want to see it again. But a few actually offers great replay value and this is when the real fun starts. You just mess around sandbox style, or go multiplayer and just have fun without chasing anything. Or if it's moddable like Assetto Corsa, then there is no end in sight and you can keep playing for years to come.

So yeah, sometimes I do get bored of games but in general I find that true with other aspects of life as well. It's just a part of getting old I guess. Every once in a while tho a real gem comes and for those experiences I think it's still worthwhile sitting through the boring stuff. No other form of entertainment comes close to games in my opinion.

P.S. Unfinished/buggy games and overly aggressive MT/DLC/lootboxes are another one of my pet peeves with modern gaming, but that's more of an annoyance than boredom.

 

[slthree]

I am an older gamer and there are days I would rather watch YouTube videos about racing than actually racing.

But, what I have discovered is the reason that I get bored of my racing games is lack of AI incidents. If I make a mistake the AI passes me but the AI never make mistakes so I don't have them to pass.

I don't want AI incidents simply to give me an easy overtake, I would like them so I have to struggle to navigate through a wreck. I'm hoping the next generation of racing games on console will have imperfect AI. I think that will add a lot more to our racing

 

[MrCrynox]

I am an older gamer and there are days I would rather watch YouTube videos about racing than actually racing.

But, what I have discovered is the reason that I get bored of my racing games is lack of AI incidents. If I make a mistake the AI passes me but the AI never make mistakes so I don't have them to pass.

I don't want AI incidents simply to give me an easy overtake, I would like them so I have to struggle to navigate through a wreck. I'm hoping the next generation of racing games on console will have imperfect AI. I think that will add a lot more to our racing

Struggling through a wreck...hmmm, have you tried Wreckfest ? At times struggling through utter carnage

 

[Sonygamer455]

At least now if a game has a bug you can get a patch instead of having to buy a newer version of it (looking at you Gran Turismo 2).

True that.

Not only is GT2 a great example of an old game being bugged at launch, but Spyro Year of the Dragon is as well. As far as I can recall, it had various glitches that prevented you from completing the game, cutscenes that didn't play, music being played on the wrong levels, and possibly more. Needless to say, the game had some serious problems at release and it needed some revisions before it was properly fixed. If you got stuck with the earlier releases of the game, you pretty much would have to buy the later releases to avoid the problems it had since updating games wasn't really a thing on consoles back then. Thankfully I had the luxury of growing up with the Greatest Hits release of the game and didn't experience any of these problems, but many were unlucky and I feel genuinely sorry for anyone who started out with the earlier releases. It's made even worse knowing the one on PSN right now is the glitched one and not the patched-up rerelease that came later. That's an unfortunate oversight on whoever put it on there. 👎

In recent years, my cousin got a PS4 after being away from gaming for almost a decade, and he was complaining about how many updates he had to download and such. While I understand his frustration, I pretty much told him what you just said, what I just said about Spryo Year of the Dragon, and why he should be happy we have them. While they can be annoying, it's great we can get updates for games instead of buying new ones.

IMO I think a lot of it is contextual. Back in the day when you were a kid everything felt new and you had no worries, so everything just feels fun & fresh.

I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but it is something I have thought about quite a bit. Although I haven't played Need for Speed Underground 2 in a VERY long time, I can say it was my very first NFS title and as a kid, I loved it! However, while I do think I might still enjoy it if I return to it again someday, I have a feeling it certainly will hit differently than it did 15 years ago, especially when the nostalgia wears off.

Some games I used to like when I was younger don't appeal to me as much now and while I stand by everything else I said here, I strongly feel my age undoubtedly plays a role in it. In fact, I have a thread here on GTP I created recently covering this sort of thing and you can find a few examples in there.

My mind often wonders whether my time is better spent doing something else more productive, but my completionist side just can't let it go

Same. I touched on this in my first post in this thread and it still rings true today. It's probably a good thing too. Although once in a while I do find myself spending a lot more time on video games than usual, in fact, I did that again just last night.

But a few actually offers great replay value and this is when the real fun starts. You just mess around sandbox style, or go multiplayer and just have fun without chasing anything. Or if it's moddable like Assetto Corsa, then there is no end in sight and you can keep playing for years to come.

Indeed. The original Star Wars Battlefront II is the epitome of this in my opinion. It's been a game I have enjoyed for nearly 15 years now and can still find reasons to play it to this very day. Haven't plunged into the PC mods yet, but the game itself already had a lot to offer and I can't even begin to imagine what it'll be once I do.

 

[Wolfe]

I'd say any "grind" in a game varies depending on how badly a game is padded for extra playtime. Any game may suffer from padding regardless of how much you love it, but that's what makes anything a chore, rather than complexity/length in itself. There's a reason a certain style of open world design is dubbed "Ubisoft-style open world" or some variation of the term.

That relates to our shared passion of sim driving/racing in this forum, because it is inherently dynamic, and it rewards repetition because it's a skill to practice. I consider it a full-fledged hobby, which makes it unsurprising and rational that there is a market for specialty hardware (wheels, rigs, etc).

 

[VXR]

Apart from PES and Forza, the only console game I've truly enjoyed in the last year or so has been Tony Hawk Remaster and that just reminded me how much simpler and more immediate games were 20 years ago.

Games are just too deep now.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

That relates to our shared passion of sim driving/racing in this forum, because it is inherently dynamic, and it rewards repetition because it's a skill to practice. I consider it a full-fledged hobby, which makes it unsurprising and rational that there is a market for specialty hardware (wheels, rigs, etc).

Yeah I don't mind repetition to improve skill (like practicing for FIA events in GT Sport), but grinding the same oval race for the 100th time just so you can buy an overpriced virtual car? Nope.

This is why I think a proper sim will always have all cars and tracks unlocked from the start, because the devs know the replay value comes from the depth of the physics engine and the authentic racing. Whereas casual sims like GT/Forza will always have that "gamey" levelling/credits system to pad out the runtime.

 

[FuriousDemon]

I had a period a couple of years back where I didn't game that much, and I thought I may be done with gaming, but that didn't last long. I'm always wondering if I will ever get tired of it, and I think at some point I may, but as long as they keep making interesting games, I'll keep playing.

I think one reason I have been able to enjoy it for such a long time (I've been gaming since the early 90s), is that I keep switching it up. In the early 2010s I've gotten into racing games (and how I found this site), which I've never played much before and played GT5 a lot and was actively involved in development of pCARS 1. Around 2013, I got obsessed with Dota 2 and played that religiously for a couple of years. Then I went back to playing a variety of games that looked interesting and got into VR gaming for a bit. Last couple of years, I've been mostly playing card games, such as Magic the Gathering and Legends of Runeterra, with some console games sprinkled in as well that look interesting. I do really like Sony's exclusive games, so getting quite a bit of mileage out of PS5.

You never know what the future holds, but there is always a game of two every year that I enjoy quite a bit, so I keep playing. Throughout all of this time though one thing's a constant - as long as someone makes a sci-fi horror game that is at least decent, I'm in!

 

[Wolfe]

Yeah I don't mind repetition to improve skill (like practicing for FIA events in GT Sport), but grinding the same oval race for the 100th time just so you can buy an overpriced virtual car? Nope.

This is why I think a proper sim will always have all cars and tracks unlocked from the start, because the devs know the replay value comes from the depth of the physics engine and the authentic racing. Whereas casual sims like GT/Forza will always have that "gamey" levelling/credits system to pad out the runtime.

I agree and disagree. I feel there is an abundance of room for something in the middle between those extremes.

It doesn't bother me too much when a racing sim offers all its cars and tracks for a custom/free race mode, because I know that's important to others, but I expect more than just that. For my own sake, I would rather earn things instead of playing a game that is already "finished" right out of the box, because that's how it feels -- like a game that's already beaten before I've even begun. I enjoy starting from the bottom, with the right pacing.

 

[tankuroded]

At least now if a game has a bug you can get a patch instead of having to buy a newer version of it (looking at you Gran Turismo 2).

Patches have been around for decades in PC gaming, by the way...

 

[Daz555]

My main problem with gaming is I love sim racing so much that I don't really have time to finish some of the other incredible games out there. I currently have RDR2, Spider-Man, God Of War and Days Gone all installed on my PS4 and all with at least 50% of the main story remaining.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

I agree and disagree. I feel there is an abundance of room for something in the middle between those extremes.

It doesn't bother me too much when a racing sim offers all its cars and tracks for a custom/free race mode, because I know that's important to others, but I expect more than just that. For my own sake, I would rather earn things instead of playing a game that is already "finished" right out of the box, because that's how it feels -- like a game that's already beaten before I've even begun. I enjoy starting from the bottom, with the right pacing.

PCARS has a nice balance between those two extremes I think. In single player mode all cars and tracks are unlocked but in career mode you still start at the bottom, with slow cars in a club level racing series and you work your way up to LMP/F1.

Not every racing game can have you start from the bottom though. For example I don't think the Codemasters F1 games would be very popular if they force everyone to start in a Williams

 

[Moglet]

I am an older gamer and there are days I would rather watch YouTube videos about racing than actually racing.

But, what I have discovered is the reason that I get bored of my racing games is lack of AI incidents. If I make a mistake the AI passes me but the AI never make mistakes so I don't have them to pass.

I don't want AI incidents simply to give me an easy overtake, I would like them so I have to struggle to navigate through a wreck. I'm hoping the next generation of racing games on console will have imperfect AI. I think that will add a lot more to our racing

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has noticed this. Apart from Wreckfest I can't recall the last time I saw any AI vehicle in a racing game make an actual mistake that wasn't prompted by the player.

 

[kjb]

This is an interesting topic. After my PS 3 died on me I didn't replace it or buy a PS4. At time life was going on and I had different priorities. I would play games on my phone and I kept up with the gaming scene but nothing I saw made me say I have to get that. When I heard about GT7 I wanted to get a PS5 which I did. I must say I am enjoying it and playing games I missed out on like MGS 5, Uncharted 4, the Tomb Raider games , Spiderman , DriveClub, PC2 and NFS Heat. During the time I didn't I have a console it has helped to prioritize things better and really enjoy when I play especially now since I can play with my children.😁

 

[Sonygamer455]

So lately, I have had yet another thing come to my mind about why my interest isn't what it once was. It's actually something that crossed my mind the last time I posted here, but I didn't think too much of it at the time. That thing being:

Large install sizes.
This was actually a minor concern for me back in the PS3 era, but I later got jailbreak and upgraded my HDD to 1TB and haven't had that problem since. PS4 however is a different story, my PS4 HDD is only 500 GB and after getting GT Sport recently, seeing its 100 GB install size and having to delete one game just to install it, it made me realize how games and their updates have only gotten bigger and will only get bigger with every console generation. This is something that has been bugging me quite a bit lately because I have a fair number of games for the PS4 I want to get and I am skeptical I'll even have enough room to store them all because my PS4's HDD simply isn't big enough and theirs games I really don't care to delete on there.

Sure I could just buy a new HDD for it and move my stuff onto it, but not only is that a bit too costly for me, but it's also going to be a pain to move my stuff onto it and I fear even that new HDD wouldn't be enough. And even if I do decide to delete some games, that means whenever I want to play them again, I'd have to redownload the updates all over again, which could take a long time and possibly require removing another game to make room for it.

This whole situation is very discouraging for me and is making me hesitant about getting more games for it. Now I do stand by what I said here:

1. I touched on this briefly in my initial post here but didn’t really go into a whole lot of detail about it. However, I have thought about it more and more since posting here and I have more I want to say on this.

Okay, look at my list of games I have here, namely for my Playstation consoles. Look at how many I have for the older consoles like the PS1 and PS2, now look at how many I have for the PS3 and PS4. Notice the number of games I have for each console generation gets smaller and smaller? Despite my list being so dang long for the PS1 and PS2, I can still find games I want for them to this very day when I go in an old video game store and theirs still some I wish I had. The same could be said for the GBA and PSP as well. Meanwhile, I don’t know any PS3 games I want right now, and theirs only a handful I want for the PS4 currently. To be fair though, the PS4 is still going and they have time to come out with more interesting stuff, so things could change.

The point is though, it would seem with every console generation, they have fewer and fewer games that interest me than the older consoles did and that I feel is something that has slowly contributed to my declining interest in video games over time.

Disclaimer: I am not suggesting modern games and consoles are bad, all I am saying is they don’t put out as many games I want to play as much as they used to.

It really has been something that's caused me to lose interest over the years. However, at the same time, I realize it's probably a good thing they don't have as many games that interest me as previous generations, otherwise, this situation would be so much worse. Am I surprised by this? Not really, but I didn't realize how problematic it would be for me until recently. Mostly because I haven't really used my PS4 for gaming a whole lot because of the things I have said here already and the times I did play video games again, I usually wanted to focus on older games.

It's interesting how my desire to focus on older games I ain't played in forever was why I stayed away from getting newer ones for so long. Then just when I decide to get one of the newer ones I had wanted, I only end up justifying my decision to revisit older games even more than before.

 

[FPV MIC]

So lately, I have had yet another thing come to my mind about why my interest isn't what it once was. It's actually something that crossed my mind the last time I posted here, but I didn't think too much of it at the time. That thing being:

Large install sizes.
This was actually a minor concern for me back in the PS3 era, but I later got jailbreak and upgraded my HDD to 1TB and haven't had that problem since. PS4 however is a different story, my PS4 HDD is only 500 GB and after getting GT Sport recently, seeing its 100 GB install size and having to delete one game just to install it, it made me realize how games and their updates have only gotten bigger and will only get bigger with every console generation. This is something that has been bugging me quite a bit lately because I have a fair number of games for the PS4 I want to get and I am skeptical I'll even have enough room to store them all because my PS4's HDD simply isn't big enough and theirs games I really don't care to delete on there.

Sure I could just buy a new HDD for it and move my stuff onto it, but not only is that a bit too costly for me, but it's also going to be a pain to move my stuff onto it and I fear even that new HDD wouldn't be enough. And even if I do decide to delete some games, that means whenever I want to play them again, I'd have to redownload the updates all over again, which could take a long time and possibly require removing another game to make room for it.

This whole situation is very discouraging for me and is making me hesitant about getting more games for it. Now I do stand by what I said here:

It really has been something that's caused me to lose interest over the years. However, at the same time, I realize it's probably a good thing they don't have as many games that interest me as previous generations, otherwise, this situation would be so much worse. Am I surprised by this? Not really, but I didn't realize how problematic it would be for me until recently. Mostly because I haven't really used my PS4 for gaming a whole lot because of the things I have said here already and the times I did play video games again, I usually wanted to focus on older games.

It's interesting how my desire to focus on older games I ain't played in forever was why I stayed away from getting newer ones for so long. Then just when I decide to get one of the newer ones I had wanted, I only end up justifying my decision to revisit older games even more than before.

Why not just get an external hard drive. A portable 2tb USB3.0 is dirt cheap these days and works fine with a PS4 for storing and playing games. I've only ever had one problem, but that was with a different hard drive than I have now that I was using on my PS4 (I currently use an 8tb external HD with my PS5). Red Dead Redemption wouldn't load unless I shifted it back to the console but all other games I've tried worked.

It's not even that bad moving stuff as long as you do it bit by bit. I moved GT Sport from my PS5 to the external unit only a couple of days ago without issue in probably less than an hour. I went off and did other things while it was moving so I'm not too sure on exact times.