Poll: What Are Your Summer Gaming Habits?

I have a saying in my household: if I ain't marathoning GTA Vice City for hours on end, it ain't summertime.

I'm an adult, so it being the summer makes no difference to me.

I try to balance new games I'm excited about with backlogged games. I can't do this thing where I entirely ignore games I'm excited about and completely dedicate myself to my backlog, though. In general, my goal is play at least twice as many games as I buy in a year, which helps to control my spending.

I'm not a huge fan of long periods where nothing releases that I'm interested in. That's why I'm a multiplatform owner: there's pretty much always something coming out that I want on one of the systems. Right now, new Switch games are commanding all my attention. In 2020, when FF7R, Ys IX, Sakura Wars, Cyberpunk, etc. release, my attention will shift to my PS4/PC.

I buy games I have no business buying in the summer out of boredom. Imagine if bl3 released today.... September- December is still way too crowded.

I need a fourth option for big games releasing during the summer – Less of them. This summer has killed my wallet.

I play a lot of games in both summer and winter.sometimes on the weekend NFL season I play less especially on Sunday.go pittsburgh Steelers.but I got so many games on my ps4 pro.my backlog is huge.and I just bought more games on the summer sale.sometimes I take a little break from gaming.go on you tube.shop on eBay.watch sports and movie.etc.its fun.word up son

I graduated in May and just recently started working full-time. Also been a lot more active and have been running just about every day. Pile those two things on top of of my long commute and I really don't have much time to game outside of the weekends now. A bit sad, but I do appreciate my free time a lot more now. Looking forward to picking up Three Houses soon as my last big summer title!

@Ralizah This is pretty much me, although I think I am worse in that I do not even control my spending for games, so more often than not, my backlog grows endlessly. I think it also doesn't help that I prefer to complete games than just beat them, so I spend more time on some games than others.

Not being able to decide what to play because I've bought too many games.

I seem to be spending a little less time gaming due to outdoor options. I do think publishers are ignoring some good opportunities to release their game in the quiet summer months. But yeah, my backlog is big enough that I don’t need any new games.

@get2sammyb I'm going to have to ask you to hand in your Real Gamer badge

I really only have time to play games after work during the summer, since my job ramps way up during the warmer months.

Hence why I like playing JRPGs and RPGs during the winter. Starting Final Fantasy 7 on the PS4 in May was a bad idea, especially since I only got to the halfway point of Disc 2 when CTR NF released. Haven't touched FF7 since then.

I'll probably finish it in the Fall or so before starting Persona 5.

@MS7000 Three 'guiding principles' help me on the spending front.

1) Don't buy a game unless you want to play it right away. There's no sense in stockpiling games for the future, especially when prices only tend to go down over time.

2) Don't worry about missing out on sales. With only a very few exceptions, games will always go on sale again for the same price or lower at some point in the future.

3) Buy games because you're actively hyped to play them, not because of some vague, materialistic impulse to hoard luxury consumer goods.

Being off uni from March to September makes it easy to sit around playing games all day but the summer being quiet makes it a good idea to get through my backlog.

I work outside so I have no need to spend my free time outside. No vacations either so I'm just gaming when I get the chance.

I have a one-year-old son, and few evenings without responsibility - so the pub often wins out over PS4, despite being vastly the more expensive option..

I typically get the nostalgia bug in the dog days...usually every summer either FF7, Chrono Trigger, Shenmue, or FF9 (last one to a lesser extent). This year went with PS4 version of FF7. The cleaner image is easy on the eyes and im loving every minute. When im not running through that or need a break im runnin Mega Man2, River City Ransom, Punch Out, Tecmo Super and Jackal. Lol.

@Ralizah They're pretty good guidelines. To be fair, unless it is a Nintendo game (personal preference), I very rarely buy games as soon as they release, so more often than not I do get the games cheap. I think sales is ultimately what makes the problem worst because the temptation is there.

You are also right about buying games because you want them as opposed to hoarding, but I tend to find that some of the most interesting games I have played are games that I would not of thought twice about buying but only got them for sale/collecting purposes. Best example of this for me is the Yakuza series, because although I had heard lots of good things about the series, it never sounded like it would interest me even when I brought Yakuza 0, but now, I am so invested in the series (Almost got platinum for 0 and have got platinum for Kiwami 2, haven't felt the urge to return to Kiwami yet).

I might try to be a little more strict in the future though. =)

There is little change to my gaming time through different seasons. I play most on my weekends off. I actually probably play more through June/July as there is no Premier League football also vying for my time.

I have tried to use my PS4 less the last few days mainly due to fears it might melt.

I tend to play a lot less, through so many different reasons. My wife is a teacher so she's off and stays up later, as do my teenage daughters. Also we always have every weekend booked up with drinking, bbqs, bars and the like. Add in we're always abroad on holiday for a few weeks. On the positive I do get to play my Vita once a year when away on holiday as I can never be bothered as rather play my ps4 when home.

it doesn't make a lot of difference to me usually, though i do find it's easier to play games when it's dark, so in winter i'd play them earlier in the evening. i haven't actually bought anything since before last summer though..

Summer is the busiest season for me since I work for a tour operator, but when I was at school/univeristy I used to spend most of my time outdoor.
In the last few years however I made the habit of playing Alien Isolation every summer. At night it's always a chilling experience.

Normal service for my PS4. It's just a bit hotter and noisier than normal.

Less emergency callouts in summer so more time for gaming.

It depends on whether I'm working days or nights on any given week. Summer holidays means having the kids around, so if any gaming goes on it's generally something kid-friendly. Rayman Origins and Legends tend to get a lot of airplay in the summer months, as does Terraria.

On the flip side, I can stay up much later at night since I don't have to rush to get up and do the school run. Like last night for example, when I was up until 2am trying to defeat that damn dirty Guardian Ape

Retired Time, dates, or seasons no longer matter to me.

Currently playing through the Tomb Raider Series and trying to catch up on Yakuza so I can play Judgment later. Gearing up for Control and Greedfall as well. Plus I got Trails of Cold Steel Anthology to wade through and certain other indie titles, lol. Yeah, I'm overloaded right now. :]

Summer doesn't make much difference to me, as I still have to go to work. Since it's been too hot in this current heatwave, I've been playing more casual games that don't require too much thought that I can jump in and out of. The only exception to that is Pokemon Go, which I've very foolishly started playing again during this hot weather since I was eager to see the new shadow pokemon mechanic.

I try and clear some of my backlog in the summer. Although my PS4 sounds like it might combust due to the heat. Got roughly 5 games on the go at the mo.

You won't find me inside with these temperatures, so definitely less gaming for me.

@kyleforrester87 Why, the latter of course ! :]

This summer, I'm gonna try and use the abunance of time to complete the longer games/RPGs, specifically FFX.

Don't care have plenty of other hobbies occupying my time i.e. reading, studying, & working out. Waiting for Medievil, death stranding, & doom..

I try to use Summer to work on my backlog but this year hasn't been going well due to the new releases. My backlog just keeps growing no matter what. Winter is just the time of the year it grows even faster. I do play a bit less gaming in Summer though but only when the weather is amazing. It's also a hard time of the year to pick a game from the collection because whenever I look at the ones that haven't been played, I get a bit overwhelmed not knowing which game to pick so end up picking nothing.

More or less the same as I work during the day. When it gets scorchio I try to play less intensive games and more chilled out stuff. Subnautica has been perfect this year.

Same as every other day of the year, I'm either at work for 12+ hours 5-6 days out of the week, or have my daughter and put her to bed at 7 and have that as my free time until I go to bed, because who needs any kind of human interaction right?

Because I work almost 60 hours a week during the summer I have way more time to game during the school year.

@Ralizah Is Sakura Wars coming too Europe or only the US?

I have a huge backlog and I just retired Thinking that would help... it has not!

@Flaming_Kaiser It's being published by Sega, so I can't imagine why it would skip Europe.

@Ralizah I hope you are right sometimes companies make insane choices.

It’s the same every summer. Me and my family go away on vacation, visiting out two families. I bring my handheld of choice with the idea of playing through 2-4 games. I get to spend 1,5 evening for myself, and usually end up not gaming.

I'm on a hiatus right now, but not so much because of the summer. More that I recently ground to a halt with GOW, which puts on protective head gear I just found so dull...

It's left me in a weird position because I'm generally a game-at-a-time person, so having not finished that I can't seem to start anything else.