Alright, it's confession time! We might eat, sleep and breathe all things Xbox here at Pure Xbox, but each of us on staff have a selection of games that we've bought in the past and somehow never played. We know, it's not a good habit!
Maybe we took advantage of a good sale and just didn't get around to actually playing the game in question. Maybe we bought something just before a whole batch of Xbox Game Pass titles were announced, and the game just got lost in the pile. For loads of reasons, our Xbox backlogs are so big these days, so the mistake is easily made.
For me personally, I've got a copy of Kung Fu Chaos for the original Xbox that I bought all the way back in 2008, and I've never played it. Why? Because I bought it in the hope that it'd be added to Xbox 360's backwards compatibility list, and then the same for Xbox One, and then the same for Xbox Series X and Series S. Never happened!
So, with that said, we're really curious to know which games you've bought for Xbox (if any) that you've just never bothered trying before. We're not counting Games with Gold or any other freebies in this Talking Point — we want to know games you've actually paid money for, that you haven't ended up playing for whatever reason.
Do you own any Xbox games you've never played? Tell us in the comments below.
Comments 59
Talking Point: Do You Own Any Xbox Games You've Never Played?
Erm, this could get embarrassing. I won't talk about the amount of games I've bought in sales, mostly because I don't know myself!
I shop sales all the time so I'd say i have at least 120 Xbox games I've never played 😂
A lot. I bought a lot of games in sales that were cheap and look interesting. But haven't been able to play a lot of them. Luckily it doesn't include titles which cam to gamepass lol
Same as above I’d say I’ve bought at least 100 titles I’ve bought and never played just on the Xbox one or XSX add in other consoles and you can make it closes to 500.
I’ll get to them one day.
Yes, I've purchased games I've yet to play. The technical term would be a "buttload".
I’ve only bought the XSX in October. I own a few og, 360 and one games I bought at flea markete but the only one I’ve ever played is fallout new vegas which I played on ps3 and steam and I’m planning on replaying on the XSX this year.
My XSX is mainly for UGP.
I don’t understand how people buy a game then don’t play them. Don’t get me wrong I’ve purchased the odd bad game when younger and not liked it but had a play.
Some must have to much money to burn.
Lol yup. I've only purchased 4 games on the Xbox and the one I've played is the one for the kids. I have two tomb raider games and Witcher 2 that have never been downloaded yet. They were on heavy discount last year and i decided to use reward points for them, heard good things about all of them... just no time to jump in. I have a copy of AC Valhalla from my brother that's been sitting by my Xbox for almost a year as well. Gamepass is more than enough for me.
I have quite a few - I bought FC6 & GotG during the BF sales and haven't touched FC6 yet and only looked at the 'opening' room of GotG so far and that was because it was on GP...
I bought the Evil Within 2 as well but haven't yet finished the first so yes I do have quite a few games I bought I haven't started yet at all.
At least I have so many options, some completely 'new' games to play so I can wait for prices to drop of 'new' releases.
Yes loads lol
Lost Odyssey, I tried many times playing it but for some reason Xbox doesn't recognize my user so I can't save my progress:(
Hundreds. Of the 700ish games I have digitally many are sale buys or to round out game series "I'll get to one day" I've probably only ever downloaded and actually started around 100.
Since coming back to the platform and getting Game Pass there aren’t as many games I actually buy any more. I do buy games and they usually get ignored for something on Game Pass.
I played all of the base grants of AC: Valhalla but I’ve not touched any of the paid DLC.
How is there not a poll on this article? I was looking for it to vote lol.
I have bought plenty of games during sales. They sit in my library, for when I find time to play them, only to delete them later to make space for something new. It's the sad endless cycle of deleting unplayed games, knowing I'll probably never redownload any of them again.
dozens and dozens
Totally, the most being Life is Strange: True Colors. Purchased it on sale because I loved the first LiS, but forgot how "whangsty" the characters get in these games and never ended up starting it. With that being said, I hope my mind is changed about it and will actually play it because it looks quite good.
I feel this is a trick question 🤣 Oh where to begin...
Some bull riding game called 8 for glory or something
Got loads from the original Xbox I never got round to and the list grows exponentially from there. It's the same with the PlayStation one and the N64 onwards. I always tell myself I'll play them one day.
100 percent.
For sure I have games from the first 3 gens of Xbox ive never had a chance to play
Actually had to look at my purchase history for this, I thought I didn't but I forgot I had gotten battlefield 1943 with the purchase of my xbox one s back in 2019. I've never bothered with it because I assumed the servers had shut down anyway. Never bothered to see if that was true though.
Shadow of the tomb raider, picked up thr trilogy in a sale a whole ago and I haven't got round to it yet still
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is at the top of my list on this one. But I have many more.
Yup. I have quite a lot of games I’ve never played that I’ve purchased between XBOX, PS4, Switch, and PC.
The good news is that I’ve been on a buying freeze and finishing quite a lot of titles recently. Just got done Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Legends Arceus this past weekend, and it seems like I’m close to halfway done Forza Horizon 5!
"Talking Point"? More like videogame buyers anonymous.
hello, my name is PhhhCough, and I have a problem..
Hundreds. Most GWG games, but yeah I’m in the habit of buying games and never playing them. Not as bad as some people, and I’m getting better! I limit the number of games I can start until I finish others: for every three games I finish I can start one new one.
Honestly, no, not on Xbox at least. I’ve bought bad games that I haven’t played much or there’s a few games that I’ve started and just never finished. Pier Solar, I’m looking at you mostly. Lol. Thanks to Gamepass though, I can barely start a game with no guilt when I drop it… and I’ll be honest, I’ve dropped roughly 90% of my Gamepass starts.
Now, if we’re talking about Switch though, I was a real sinner with buying games I didn’t play or barely touched for the longest time… I own about 200 Switch titles and have completed maybe a third of them, if that.
I laughed at reading this, Do i own any games I've never played. Answer Yes a whole shelf ful lol 😆😆😆
Hundreds and hundreds.. I'm a sucker for a sale, but also frequently pre-order games and then I'm playing something else at the point of release and so never get round to playing it. I pre-ordered, Assassins Creed Valhalla, Tiny Tina Wonderland, Dying Light 2, for example, and have yet to play any of them.
Watchdogs 1. I bought it during one of those too good to be true sales about five months ago and have yet to play it
Right now the only one that comes to mind is Forza Horizon 2. I saw it at Gamestop last year and been wanting to play the other games in the series since the only one I played was 3. Every time I am about to get to it some other game distracts me.
I am usually good about buying games even if I don't fully play them I will at least try them out for a few minutes.
I have many games unplayed, but this year I have made an effort to tackle my backlog and not keep buying more games just because they are cheap in a sale... I would like to get to a stage where my backlog is completed and I just play new games. But new games are so expensive so maybe it's better to keep a big backlog of old cheap unplayed games to play while waiting for the new expensive games to drop in price?
Only about 3000
I've never owned an XBOX until now and the major selling point was the backwards compatibility and GamePass.
At this point, I have roughly 60 games and counting, and about 50 I haven't unwrapped yet.
I’ve bought games I’ve only played once to try out. Certain genres of games or that fit a niche or compliment my set up I’ll get.
J’aimerais que tout les jeux Xbox original et Xbox 360 de à a z qui Soit rétro compatible sur ma Xbox one
Hmmm 🤔 do I have Xbox games I’ve never played? I got Atari 2600 games I’ve never played and still factory sealed!! Time just doesn’t allow me to play all the ones I planned on trying lol. All total I probably have almost 4000 sealed games over a 40 year span!
Nothing on Xbox, but ~50 across all other platforms that I've never played whatsoever. It used to be a lot more that that to be honest, but I made a conscious effort in 2020 to either start (unless they are heavily story driven) or sell all the games I've never touched. I've stuck to this and very rarely buy games anymore (unless I'm super hyped to play them immediately) since I already have so many I was interested in enough to warrant a purchase, and buying more is basically a waste of money that I could spend buying better food or toys for my daughter or future vacations or something worthwhile. In the last 2 years, I've beaten just under 300 games (or DLCs) and have played at least a little bit of about 100 more, just to cross them off the "never even tried it" list. Huge progress at least to be down to ~30% of where I was a couple years ago.
Yes, Blue Dragon is the first game that springs to mind. I'm sure there are many more, though.
Well over 600 through the entire Xbox family.
Plenty. Though to say I've never "played" them would be disingenuous. I usually play anything I download for at least a few minutes. That said, there are many that I've purchased, downloaded, played for a few minutes, then set aside to come back to later.... and I just haven't yet. Death's Door, Divinity OS II, all three Dark Souls games, Pillars of Eternity... the list goes on and on.
@everynowandben That's impressive 300 games completed in 2 years! I have completed 27 this year aiming to complete a game a week. It's nice to make progress clearing the backlog. Also doing the rarely buying games unless I really really want to play it.
@MagicCat Thanks! A bunch of them were short and/or DLCs and/or games I'd already made some progress on in years past, so it's not quite as much as it sounds like - still definitely a lot though. I was furloughed in 2020 and had a lot of extra time on my hands... It's probably more embarrassing than something to be proud of tbh. You're outpacing me this year! Nice job!! I'm only at 19 so far in 2022. Last year around this time I was at about 55, but that's the difference between having a job/career or not, hahaha...
I have lots of games on Xbox, PS, and Switch that I haven’t played. From this generation and previous generations. Mostly bought on sale for cheap.
I am a little ashamed of my big backlog. At the same time, at this stage of my life time is a lot more valuable than money. I want to play what I want, and to have lots of options. If the worst thing that happens is I never get around to playing a bunch of games I paid pennies for-oh well.
Unfortunately yes I own several. I have even more that I have played like twice and given up on.
Usually play games on gamepass (the reason I bought series s and now, series x), bought games in sales.
Dozens if not hundreds if we include 9 years of GOLD Xbox 360 games. But even without that quite a few. I used to pick up a lot of games in the digital sales. However with Game Pass making my backlog longer than ever I made a promise that I wouldn't buy more games than I completed.
Slowly I am getting through the games I own, that I still want to play. There's a few I realise I will never get round to, and more still that maybe had a remaster or rerelease before I ever played the original, but on the whole I'm pretty content that i've spent well and made the most of my time.
@Dezzy70 "I don’t understand how people buy a game then don’t play them... Some must have too much money to burn."
I used to think the same, I used to buy a game at full price on day 1 and play it immediately. I actually spend less now but buy more. Let me explain.
During XBO generation I started waiting to buy most games, though not all. This was for a variety of reasons but mostly because the majority of games seemingly needed patches and were simply better games 6-18 months later. Additionally by then there were often DLC or free updates released - I prefer to play the whole game at once not come back just for DLC or updates.
Effectively the way games release has changed. If you want to play the best and most complete version of a game you need to wait. The bonus is that games are significantly cheaper 6-18 months on.
Instead of buying day 1 what I started to do was buy games I wanted to play in the sales, both digitally and physically. You say we must have money to burn, and that may be true of some, but in reality I was spending significantly LESS than buying games Day 1 and get even more games for less money.
The downside was that I would buy more games in the sales than I could actually get around to playing, just adding more to my backlog, which could be a bit stressful. I've been better at only buying games I will play soon recently.
Not saying it's the best way of doing things, it's not for everyone, but until games start releasing complete and unbuggy I'll keep doing this, though Game Pass has shaken a few things up.
Yes about 20% of my games I have never opened and played. Another 20% i played for a half hour and never played again.
Not including all the gold games I downloaded and then deleted.
About 80% of them never tried.
Haha too many.
@themightyant
Definitely agree with better later after patches when the games have no bugs and run better.
Reading these comments make me feel better about my ever growing and crazy (mostly unplayed) backlog.
I am sure that MS would refer to me as a 'Whale' in their sales meetings.
i have quite a few, but the one that probably stands out the most is Resident Evil 3 Remake. i was going to start it (really i was!) but then i heard that Capcom was doing next-gen updates for the last few RE games, so i decided to hold off.
of course, i had owned the game for nearly a year by the time that announcement was made, but never mind that. my backlog has almost become a sentient being at this point.
I'm ashamed to say I probably have around 500 games across platforms that I have never played.
I have done this in the past. I’ve also forgotten I have purchased them, and then ended up purchasing them again…. Which may or may not have ever been played.
Unfortunatey, I do own some xbox games that I never played (yet). But they are timeless games. I'll play them as soon after I find some free time in future.
I bought Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance a week or two ago, but I have yet to play that; I have 2 Wii games that have still never been put into the console, and my Steam library is full of unplayed stuff.
Reading all the comments here, I feel better about myself, knowing I'm not the only one, and hearing some of the numbers I got a mild case...
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