We came across a news story this week about a middle-aged Scottish woman who takes multiple days off work per-year to play Xbox games, and we have to admit, we're struggling to see why that's such a big deal!
Maybe it's because we're all obsessed with Xbox ourselves, but we've certainly taken days off work in the past to enjoy brand-new releases that we've been looking forward to, and we know that plenty of Xbox fans also like to clear their schedules for E3 (or Summer Game Fest) week when all the major gaming showcases are taking place.
And to be honest, we've even taken Xbox-related days off when there's not really a good reason to! Who needs a reason?! Sometimes you just want to chill out in front of the TV and forget about work for a while...
So, with this bizarre story in mind, we're interested to know if you have ever taken a day off for something Xbox related. Does a specific game come to mind? We'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic down in the comments below.
If you're curious about that news story, here's what the fan had to say about her "staycation of gaming":
"I've always been a nerd and I love it. I tell my co-workers about my staycation of gaming. I don't use my annual leave for anything else important. It's definitely worth the days off."
Have you ever taken a day off for something Xbox related? Tell us!
[source dailyrecord.co.uk]
Comments 61
Yup, I've done this loads of times, usually for a console launch but I've done it for certain games. Took a week off for OG Xbox and 360. Took 2 weeks when Alan Wake and RDR came out a few days apart. Every PGR game, Ninja Gaiden 2. I'll be doing it when Alan Wake 2 drops.
Yeah, I have requested to have a day off work to play a game. I even tell my exact reason why to the boss. It’s like, hey, is it cool if I can have this day off? a certain a game comes out that day. And if nothing major is happening at work, I usually get the request. I have never called in sick to play a game though. I don’t do it to often but I definitely did it for Street Fighter 6.
Lol no...never been that much of a dork that I can't wait a day or a few extra hours to play a game
Yes! I used to take off for the Xbox E3 shows, but now that they host them on weekend days, I always try to have a get-together with friends and grill.
I've never taken a day off (that I can recall) for something Xbox (or gaming) related myself, but I have 'compromised' my working ability due to gaming. I know I have turned up to work without sleeping since I left the previous day due to playing games all night but I don't think I have booked a 'day off' because a game is releasing.
I have used my Annual Leave days to 'game' but I didn't book the time off specifically for gaming - it was just annual leave to use up and took that opportunity to spend more time Gaming.
I have no issue with booking time off to Game, I just never felt the need. There has never been a Game that I couldn't wait until I got home to play and often, going out to work meant that I'd have the opportunity to nip to the shop at lunch-time to browse the Gaming shops, pick up 'new' releases and play them when I got home after work.
I attended some 'midnight' launches too but didn't take the Day off afterwards (maybe I should have on at least one or two occasions LOL) but I can't recall ever booking a day off or calling in Sick to spend time gaming specifically...
TBH I very rarely pre-order games but even then I still wouldn't take a day off work just to play it.
I wish I could, but, as a grown up, I usually need other uses for my vacation time. Lol.
I think the last time I actually requested time off work to play a game was when Fallout 3 came out. I was 19 back then. I did choose to be unemployed for a little bit of time when Halo 4 came out though. Back in those days, I had a summer job that stretched into November and started back up in February. I just didn’t find winter work that year and it was probably Halo’s fault (well, realistically, it was my fault, but I wanted to play Halo and it was my first year being done with schooling, so I just wanted to have a little time strictly for fun in my early 20s, I suppose). Although, back when Halo 4 came out, I was also trying to be a writer that winter, so I guess I was sort of working, but just not in a “getting much pay” for the effort sense.
Once. I took a day off to play cyberpunk 2077 on day 1… that was well worth the annual leave! Not
A few times. Last time was for Elden Ring
I broke up with the girl I was dating when Mass Effect 2 came out. It wasn’t gonna work out anyway.
I haven't yet. But I am for Starfield.
Two days for GTA5 when it first launched and took a long weekend for RE4 remake. Would have done the same for Gears of War 3 but was lucky enough to have launch day off anyway
I used to skip college classes back in the 360 days when call of duty and battlefield were going strong.
Haven't taken vacation days for gaming ever but sometimes a sick day is spent with a controller in hand. Those sick days are never planned for something like a release tho, usually just don't feel like working.
Did it for Warcraft back in the days of total Crackheadedness. Nothing Xbox tho.
Did it for Shenmue 2 on the Dreamcast, my local EB (which it was at the time) had it, played that game so much
It’s not Xbox but I did take the day off for Tears of the Kingdom.
Metal Gear Solid 4 - had a week off “ill”
Not the Xbox but I did skive off work when Metroid Prime and Wind Waker both came out.
Had the day for the 360 launch, the only console I've ever bought day one
The halo 3 beta launch back in the day.
Starfield - cough, cough
Usually play into the AM and tell my boss that I couldn’t sleep …
@StylesT When you got kids, taking a day off (during a normal work week when everyone else is out) is probably your only option to guarantee a "few hours" to play something.
I have kids and the only time I get to myself for single player games is before everyone wakes up. If a new game is coming out that I'm really excited about I'll take a day off to play.
That being said I bet the majority of the audience on this site is from the US who generally get very few vacation days, so they are are at a massive premium. I have enough vacation days that a day or 2 here and there doesn't make a huge difference (well, until the kids get to school age, then we gotta contend with all their holidays).
Halo 3 release date. Skipped my college classes.
Not really. I have taken days off where I end up only playing video games, but that’s never been the reason. Like, if Christmas is on a Thursday, I might take Friday off and make it a longer weekend, spend that time just relaxing and mostly just video gaming.
Being your own boss has its perks. I have absolutely rescheduled jobs based on a game releasing. I don’t do it too often, but it’s definitely happened a few times over my career. I’ll be done working for the year by the time Stafield comes out so no need to take off of work. That’s a title I absolutely would have tho had it released in the spring or summer.
I'll do it for when I start Hogwarts Legacy. Haven't yet for that reason.
Many times and I've got 2 weeks off work for Starfield too. Yeah, I'm a sad old man. 😂
Of course, I'm currently on month 7 of the one year I put aside to play through Assassin's Creed: Valhalla and all of its DLC. Good thing I'm the boss or I'd probably be fired by now.
I did for The Division 2 launch.
This is actually quite sad to realize, I’ve never done it for an Xbox first-party game, I have for plenty of third-parties, PS exclusives and Nintendo exclusives, but never for Xbox until now, Starfield is the first Xbox game I’m willing to take a day off to play it and pay for the early access even though I already paid for Game Pass until 2025.
I've recently taken a day off to just play games to chill out. Quickly discovered that my adult version of a day to play games was from 8:30-2:30 cuz gotta get kids from school at 3.... adulting sucks.
yes, a week for bethesda games and ark survival evolved. a few days for resident evil games.
Yes of course 🤷🙅🙅
Multiple times.
In the past it's been gaming orientated with other stuff. Such as a holiday to Japan, visiting egx in Birmingham etc.
As for game releases. I took a day off for Metal Gear Solid 5 near release, to finish a raid in og destiny and took a couple of days leave to work on Dreams on the PS4.
Weirdly and due to server issues, day 1 patches and the like. I wouldn't even consider taking a holiday to play a game on release day nowadays.
Compared to 10-11 years ago, one year I took a bunch of holidays to play trials evolution, soul calibur 5 and halo 4.
I will preface all that, I do work hard and book holidays around my family. The holiday days are usually left over from my yearly allocation or owed in leui. I love gaming. I may take a day off to finally play Max Payne 3!
@BBB Had a similar, almost inverse experience. Ended up having to take off a week and a half to take care of my kids while my wife was on a business trip and it serendipitously started at the beginning of early access for Diablo 4, so I bought the deluxe digital because of this.
Not yet, I may have to fit Starfield though.
I may have faked being too sick for school so that I could spend all day playing FF7 on PS1 once or twice.....
@IOI it’s interesting that you point this out. Technically, if Xbox hadn’t bought Bethesda you’d still not be having a day off for an Xbox made game.
@ZYDIO can I ask, are you playing this game daily for 7 months or am I missing something?
Actually, I play it every other day. I alternate between 2 games. Usually a long game and a short game. I don't play anything on Sundays most of the time. So I am really only playing it 3 times a week for about 5 hours at a time on average. I was joking about taking off for a full year to play it, but I do have 7 months in it. I started it on New Years Eve. I think I have about 230 hours in it.
My brother takes a day off every time they release the new Pokémon. It was his first game as a kid and it’s now a tradition for him.
Personally, I have taken days off for gaming, mainly for games like World of Warcraft back in the day.
Nowadays, I have family and so my days off usually coincide with my wife and kids days off. But as my kids game we often have a few gaming days together if my wife is working.
This year I decided that I would take a day off just for me for Starfield’s release. And actually it was my wife’s idea.
@ZYDIO that’s impressive.
I’ve been watching someone on and off as they play through it on Twitch. It’s a long haul and something I don’t really have time for, but I’m likely going to grab it eventually. I really enjoy the AC open world games and Valhalla looks the best of them in my mind.
@Kienda It is pretty good, I had no idea it was gonna take this long, but I'm gonna see it through.
I did it one time. A long time ago for GTA5 on my 360. What a great day!
My buddy and I took off to play Gears 5 at launch...unfortunately the Game Pass launch had issues with authentication and we didn't get to play it that night. ☹️
It was a bummer but hey eventually they fixed it and the game was pretty good even though I had quite a few bugs during my playthrough. I intend to go through it again though before Gears 6 comes out some day.
More recently, Street Fighter 6 although I got that on PS5. That on the other hand had a super smooth launch and I took off a week for it. Honestly one of the best weeks of gaming in my life!
Me and my gaming buddies used to take the day off when a new Halo game was released and play the whole game co-op on that day. We haven't done that with Halo Infinite unfortunately. But did it for Halo 3,4,5, ODST and Reach. Good times.
Nope wouldn't work for me. People would see me having a day off and use that as an opportunity to get me to do other stuff instead.
Only for R* games
Absolutely many times, but then I run my own business. As long as the work gets done on time, and to a high standard, it doesn’t matter when I do it, there’s flexibility. If I was employed I don’t think I would. Slippery slope. But for really big games like Zelda or Starfield I’ll just book a day off in advance. Only once or twice a year mind.
I took a day off for the Halo 2 on the original Xbox back in November of 2004. I also picked up the game at midnight at Game Stop. Came home and started playing it for a few hours, went to sleep, woke up the next morning and immediately started playing it as I was off.
The next time I took a day off was a year later in 2005 for the Xbox 360 release. I pre-ordered 2 of them from 2 different Game Stop locations. I immediately came home after picking both of them up and started playing Perfect Dark Zero and Xbox Arcade games.
The last time I took a day off for a gaming-related event (adulthood sucks): Star Wars Battlefront in 2015. I remember explaining I was taking a day for a video game to the attorney I work with and he was just thunderstruck people older than 12 did that.
No. I use my holidays for time with my wife and kid. I'm never in such a desperate hurry to play new releases, especially now it's around a year before they're complete/patched.
Yeah. I remember when Starfield came out. I just so happened to be feeling extremely unwell. Had a fever, was sick, sweating, headache.... Oh crap, that's not happened yet 😂 but I'm pretty sure that's how it's going to go.... My mates and I used to book a weeks holiday from work whenever pro evo was coming out... When it was good.
Once. On the 360 I took off from work to play the first week of to play Call of Duty: World at War. Like many I was obsessed with CoD 4- to me still the greatest in the franchise. I was disappointed and my group lost the fire a bit. That first year of COD4 was amazing. Maybe the most fun I've ever had playing an online game. We met every night without fail and had a blast.
Never and No way! Dont need it.
A friend of mine once lost a job because of FFVII, he bought it on release and just didn't bother going in to work for a week because he was that hooked on it.
Nah, but if in the future I get toward the end of the year with extra vacation days, I'd consider it. But I use my PTO days for trips or sick days.
No not for any gaming thing. I get people used to treat all of the E3 press conferences as some kind of weird sporting event as the ones representing the piece of hardware they backed would get cheered as they announced new games. Even then if I had the time I'd watch them live if not it's not like I'm missing a life changing even or a sporting moment that is better watching live.
I have also never taken time off of work specifically to play a new game that has launched. If I have booked time off and I am not going anywhere then I may pick something up and play it as I have the time but I don't use the time exclusively to play a new game not in the past or now.
Not for Xbox, but I remember taking a week off work sick for the original launch of FF7. I also went ill on the launch day of Thunderforce 4 on the megadrive - I didnt go back in till I'd completed it
Yes for day one delivery of my Xbox series S.
It was on the Argos van. I tracked it all day through the app. They made to my town but not my address. Think they had run out of hours. I was very disappointed.
They delivered the next day but I had to work.
It was worth the wait though.
Who hasn't booked time off work for a game on any device? My last one i think was God of war on ps, cyberpunk before that. I'm not taking one for starfield, cause I'm not still not convinced they're going to stick the landing with performance
Skipped school for Halo 2, myself
I've never had a xbox before. So nothing xbox related. I have a xbox now and I rarely use it. I do remember skipping college a few times every time I got a new game. Can't remember what games they were tho. And I can't do that at work , otherwise I won't get paid lol.
Never for a game, but when I picked up my 360 at a midnight launch, I had booked off the following day.
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...