bite sized: the way we play

Hey loggers. Welcome back to another bite sized episode of the Backlog Breakdown. I am your host, Josh. And today because we're doing a bite sized episode, I've got one thought for you that I that is not fully formed and that thought is to read an article. Doesn't that sound lame? No, but there was something that I had seen in the news rags about video games that I wanted to at least discuss, kind of go through. We'll just walk through it together because I think it's interesting to analyze the way that we play video games. In particular the differences between different generations of video game players because video games are ubiquitous. And I say that also, like there's this part of me that wants to gatekeep like no they're not because friggin Candy Crush or wordle is not a video game. I get all up in my stuff. But at the same time I do think, hey, we all, I think there's something good about recognizing, hey, we all play games digitally, okay? Just about everyone does play some form of digital game. Okay. Now it's very different between, I don't know, first game that pops into my mind, God of War 2018. Someone who plays that would be more of a hardcore gamer as opposed to someone again who plays wordle or I'm trying to think of what other viral games. Gosh, that Words with Friends back a long time ago, but that's just showing my age, which actually kind of goes into what we're going to be talking about, what I would like to address today. Anyways, what I came across was an article from GamesIndustry Biz and it references an IGN Entertainment paper, I suppose a report that was developed by Kantar and UC Berkeley. Okay, so this, this report is really about the way that different generations play different video games. Okay, it is a marketing report. So that's something that right off the bat needs to be addressed. So why was this information collected? You know, you can ask how is it collected? Is it a scientific study? I don't know. I don't know what I will say. I mean Kantar and UC Berkeley, that's definitely thrown out there to say, you know, for the, I can't think of the proper term, but basically to get your, to get your credibility from, from different scientific reporting agencies, things like that. So I totally understand that. But this is a marketing report. Okay, so the people who, who created this IGN Entertainment wanted to pull data about how people play video games so that they can provide this data to other companies who would then market to these types of people. So I think there's an inherent incentive for them to develop good data for the sake of selling people games as opposed to pushing some sort of a political agenda, if that makes sense. That's just my first thought off the bat as I take a look at this and as I analyze. Because with any kind of scientific study like this, there's going to be biases that go into it. I think because this is a marketing study, the bias is how can we segment different types of people and in this case, people from different generations. How can we segment them, categorize them, learn about the way they engage with video games so that we can sell them more video games. So I do think, again, credibility is there because marketing is such a powerful force in our world, in our capitalistic world, which, hey, I don't have a problem with marketing in general. I only think it's bad if it's deceptive. And we might actually see from this report that there are some potentially deceptive marketing tactics that you can use because of this stuff that you learn here. So anyways, I was interested in it from the, from the vantage point of, oh, how do different generations engage with video games nowadays? Like I said, if we take the idea that everyone, hey, everyone plays video games, I think it's easy enough to see that, like, hey, older generations, like boomer generations, how do they play video games? I mean, it's gonna be here, it's gonna be your, you know, word games or whatever, if at all, you know, very, very limited play of any type of video game. But in particular, this report focuses on the differences between gen X gamers, millennial gamers and gen Z gamers. Why is that? Well, I think it's, it doesn't say. It's, it's not stated. But I think it's obvious in that these are the generations in which video games actually became ubiquitous when they, when they grew. I mean, I'm young enough to know when video games niche. Can you believe it? I mean, in today's day and age, it is the largest medium in terms of dollars. Every year it's bigger than movies and video games combined. Again, take it with a grain of salt. That includes your, your candy crushes, that includes your word. Not word search games, but the find the hidden object games. You know, farmville, again, I'm dating myself by talking about words with friends in farmville. But these types of that, you know, you don't necessarily think of. But with video games being such a huge medium nowadays, dude, when I was young, like, not everyone played Video games. You were kind of a nerd if you played video games. I thought it was cool. I guess I'm the, I'm kind of the tail end of that. But I would say probably, I don't know, maybe we can talk to Nate, maybe we can talk to someone else. That Gen X probably experienced that to a much larger degree of you're a nerd. If you're into video games, you're not, you're not cool nowadays. I mean it's cool to like any nerd stuff. Like nerd is a badge of honor. Whereas like no, when I was younger, nerd meant you were going to get beat up. I say that that's my, that is my fake understanding of things because I was homeschooled and so I didn't get beat up, you know, except just tussling with my brothers. Anyways, let's get back to this report or at least let's take a look at some of the highlights. You can view this, throw a link in the description, whatever here so that you can take a look Games Industry Biz taking a look at the IGN Generations in Play 2026 Audience Insights report. So some of the highlights that this article brings out from the report, it says that 71% of audiences no longer purchase physical music and 62% no longer buy full priced games. So there has been an absolute se change in the way that people purchase. It's interesting to me that, that it talks about music as well. I suppose video games and music would be intertwined in some cases and it does make me sad because I prefer my music physically, which I understand I Then RIP to MP3 and so I get, I kind of double dip in that in that sense because digital music is just so much more convenient. Regardless, I do like having physical discs and that plays over into video games. As however for me personally, if, if a game is at enough of a sale, hey, I'll drop three bucks as opposed to the 30 that it would be physically to try out a new game with an eye towards hey, maybe I'll pick up the physical later. You know, I get it. But if we're saying, if this is saying that 62% of video game players no longer buy full priced games. Some of the things that come to mind for me about that is, is that, is that because of consumer demand or is that simply because big video game creators have been weaning us off of physical games for a long time? You know, does this have to do with the fact that your regular PlayStation 5 doesn't even have a disk drive. Your Series S doesn't have a disk drive as well. Nintendo now has GameCube key cards and so people are less likely to purchase the physical version than previous. You know, if everything were readily available physically, would this still be the case that 62% of people no longer buy full price games? It's an interesting metric and it does speak to the future of video games. It speaks to the where we are as video game players in our comfortability with purchasing things digitally as opposed to having physical games. And I think it does speak to the future as well of where video games are going. We are going, we are moving at least to an all digital future. Now, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna pull out my crystal ball and pretend like I'm Nostradamus and like I know where things are going. No, I prefer physical. I do. Is that just because I'm a millennial? You know, maybe I don't. I don't know. I like being able to see my games. I like being able to have them so that I can, I can play them later and I get disc rod as a thing. I understand all these things. However, I like to have a physical artifact of things. And this is a longer discussion, but something that popped up in the discord too is that I think, I think we were embodied creatures and we do prefer physical things over simple thoughts. We like to. Even in the scriptures. Again, I'm pulling this from discord. I believe Nate was the one who referenced it. Even in the scriptures, you see the Israelites creating these monuments, whether it was pillars, pillars or rocks or things like that, the Ebenezer to remind them of the good things that God had done for them. So I think there's something to be said about preferring physical things over just a mere remembrance of things just digital. And I think especially with this podcast, when we talk about backlogs in games that we have, it's easier to quantify your backlog if you have physical things, if you have a, a shelf that is sagging due to the weight of all your unplayed games that feels like, oh, I should be a better steward of the things that I have of the games that I buy, as opposed to just having a digital library that essentially takes up no space, or even a Steam library that, that literally takes up no space. It's simply a list until you download those games onto your, onto your hard drive. So anyways, I do think it's interesting that 62% of video game players no longer buy full price Games. Okay, that's something else that, that I want to delve into is that this, it talks about physical music and this is something I missed when I was talking earlier. I apologize. This is talking about full priced games, no longer buying full price games. It's not talking about just physical games. So physical is, is a conversation as well. But this is also talking about brand new games. And this at least the, the highlight here in the article does not specifically say it, but this is divided by generation as to who actually purchases these full priced games. And I think it has to do with why would someone buy a full priced game? In today's day and age, games most generally tend to drop in price. That's not necessarily as time goes by. That's not necessarily the case with Nintendo. Right now we're in an odd place where because digital games are slightly cheaper than physical games, there are outlets that if you pre order games, they're actually cheaper than when they're released. So that is an interesting little wrinkle of an artifact of where we are in video games right now. Star fox for Switch 2 is right now you can pre order it for $50, but if you don't pre order essentially is going to go up to $60 physical, if you buy it digital, it stays at $50. So that's an interesting wrinkle. But I think in general, full priced games, purchasing a full priced game means that you want it on release date or around its release date. I know that's when I would buy full price games because if I just wait a couple months it won't be full price anymore. So I think that speaks to how much you want kind of the new and shiny and the latest experience as well. So what do you prefer? Do you just prefer to play the game or do you prefer to play the game at the same time that everyone else is experiencing it? That's an interesting again kind of insight into where we are as gamers because of the landscape, because games get cheaper. I think especially if you're older and you have a backlog of games, it's easier not to buy it on release, it's easier to wait and spend, you know, buy it at 50% off as opposed to the day that it releases. So just splitting it up by generation. Okay, millennials are 38% and Gen Z are 42%. They're much more likely to buy games at full price while Gen X lags far behind at 20%. Okay, so basically the older you are, the less likely you are to purchase a game at full Price. And again, to me I read that and I think the first place my brain goes to is okay, yeah, because we have backlogs or because we have a similar experience at home. You know what I mean? Metroid Prime 4, though there was a long wait for that game, made me realize, oh yeah, I haven't played two or three and I own these games, so do I really need four things like that come to mind for me. And I think as you're older, you probably have those experiences and, and you don't necessarily need the new and the shiny. I think on the other end of the spectrum that we'll see more with this report is that Millennial, the Gen Z gamers, I would say in particular like to play their games alongside in a social relationship. So whether that is actually social or whether that's parasoci, they like to be in the thick of. I guess, I guess it has to do with the new and shiny. But again, as we'll see further, there's less kind of single player experiences and they tend more towards the not necessarily MMORPGs. Again, I'm dating myself here, but the types of games that are more social, the fortnights, the, you know, the big online multiplayer games that are going on at the moment. So I think that has to speak, that speaks into another element of this purchasing games at full price. Because hey, full price might be not necessarily $70, but if you want in on a new game that is massively multiplayer, it might be at a lower price as well. So here's the next, the next little highlight is that Gen X favors single player games and Gen Z prefers multiplayer titles. There we go. That's it. Multiplayer to almost exactly the same degree, while Millennial players remain almost evenly split. So that's an interesting generational divide. Gen X likes to game alone. No, not necessarily, but they're looking for more of a single player experience where Gen Z actually prefers to play multiplayer. It's interesting. So I'm a millennial, kind of an older millennial. I, I would say I definitely lean more towards the single player experiences, but that has a lot to do with the amount of time that I'm able to play games. And when I'm able to play games, I like to play games with my kids and with my family. Yes. But most of my game time is by myself and so I'm not typically playing a multiplayer game when I do that. So but, but you see again, there's this more social aspect, the multiplayer aspect, which is interesting because it's so much Easier to play multiplayer games than when I was a kid. I mean, the idea of playing online with people was a thing with like Sega Channel and there was a Super Nintendo peripheral that allowed you to do that that I remember I could rent from the video store. But it, it had a high cost. Whereas nowadays, again, it's just ubiquitous in a lot of video games. So that interesting thing to think about how, how we play games. I like to play single player. I like to play narrative experiences. And a lot of this kind of maps onto these different generations as well. The next highlight is that Gen X and Millennials are more likely to return to games in order to complete or master them, while Gen Z are primarily motivated by new customization or community content. Okay, so again, this is marketing. This is marketing. The way that older people, gen Gen X and Millennials play games is they like to go back, they like to master them, or they will play them again. They, they. To me, it seems like there's more of a value put on the game itself as opposed to the way that Gen Z play because they play more multiplayer content, they're motivated. What this is again, marketing by new customization and community content. So new skins, new ways to interact with other people, things like that. So in terms of marketing, okay, those are the types of things that we want to create for younger players that they will purchase. Okay, that's again, it's valid in terms of marketing. But it's interesting to me as a gamer. That sounds so lame. As someone who plays video games, it's interesting to me because I do tend to lean more into the direction of, well, I mean, I'm not big on cosmetics in general in video games, but I lean into the direction of, yes, I'd rather master games. I have these, you know, top 10 games, these games that I return to, these games that I really love. And again, I come from an era where that was more common, where I didn't have the amount, the sheer amount of video games that are available today. I didn't have that as a kid. Growing up, I only had a handful of games and I would replay those games. And so I think that comes over into the way that I play games nowadays as well. The consumption of guides and game help varies by generation. So Gen Z indexes higher on tips, videos, learning how to play games, learning, you know, secrets, things like that. Millennials on map tools, which is interesting. I'm not quite sure what that means. But then Gen Z on build guides. Okay, so this is also another thing that, that intrigues me about the way that Gen Z plays is they enjoy these types of games where you're building. You know, I think of like the Minecraft or, you know, again, ubiquitous, the biggest types of games. And so using your imagination in those ways, I do think that's interesting. Whereas it seems like Gen X prefer. Older people prefer to think about the tools that they have and master those. And so they're more strategic in that way. Whereas Gen Z seems to be more creative, which is, which is just fun to think about, again, from a marketing perspective. Okay, so then you create these different things and market to these different, these different people. And then here's the thing is that if the younger people are buying more games at full price, then those are the people that you're going to market to, unfortunately, in my mind. But it makes sense. You vote with your wallet. So the last highlight here is that Gen X are highly skeptical of AI and more trusting of brand recognition, being 38% less likely to use AI for discovery and 44% less likely to believe that AI summaries are as good as human ones. So that's just another tidbit about the use of AI as well. I'm sure there's tons of AI used in marketing in general. One of the other highlights from at least a little bit of the paper that I can see is that podcasts, podcast content and consumption is big with Millennials and not as big with Gen X or Gen Z. So I think that kind of fits. Hey, I've got a podcast because I'm a millennial, right? And I listen to a bunch of podcasts. But the way that we hear about games is different with generations as well. Again, Gen Z being more social, and again, I say social, it's more parasocial really, because I think in real life relationships, I feel like older people tend more towards that. Although I, I do think there's a sea change coming with the amount of disembodied content that's available nowadays. I do think Gen Z, Gen Alpha are starting to be very wary of all this, this going on and want real flesh and blood relationships, which I think is a good thing. But anyways, podcasts are big among millennials. So again, if you're a marketer, oh, then we need to have a podcast or we need to, we need to market our content on podcasts and things like that. So anyways, I think there's a lot to glean from this. It's. It was just fun for me to think about these things and the differences between generations and the way that we play video games the way that we think about video games. And so with a report like this, because it's a marketing report, hey, I mean companies seem to be encouraged to create more content that I don't prefer some more multiplayer type games that have lots of customization and again, I think of microtransactions, I think of cosmetic content and things like that that I just don't, don't go to video games for. But it seems like that is the moneymaker. I totally get that. Hey, if you hit the jackpot then yeah, it's a moneymaker, but if you don't then you're not really going to get much out of it. So there's a lot to think about. I thought it was fun. This is like I said, it's kind of unformed thoughts. But this is what we do with our bite sized content here. So hopefully you've enjoyed it. Link for that article in the description if you want to check it out more, I'd love to hear what you have to say. What do you think? Do you think I'm off base with some of the stuff that I am I just biased in the way that I play games? Yes, of course I am. But is that why I've come to some of my conclusions and maybe you see something that I don't see. I would love to hear it. Engage with us on socials. Join the discord and we can chat about it more. You can check out our [email protected] thebacklogbreakdown but until next time, guys, keep beating down your backlogs and we'll keep breaking down the benefits.