A new year is approaching and with it more shiny new games. But… that backlog is still there, filled with all kinds of fun games you haven’t played yet. What to do? Easy! Join the XboxEra Backlog Challenge and see that pile of games get smaller!
Our challenge is to finish as many games as possible from the backlog and not adding too many new games to it, bringing the total number of games down.
This friendly competition is a great opportunity to discover games old and new, get inspired by each others completions and talk about great, and bad, games. Hopefully making a dent in the backlog, but most importantly having fun. I hope you’ll join!
Rules:
Each game successfully completed from your backlog gives you a point (+1).
Each newly purchased game detracts a point (-1) .
The competitor with the highest score by December 15th, 2025 will become the XboxEra 2025 Backlog Challenge Champion.
Games on Xbox Game Pass or any other subscription service are worth zero points aside from the following exemptions:
The game is already part of your backlog, in which case it is treated normally
You purchase a copy of the game at which point it becomes a -1 until beaten
Any games received as a gift from your friends/family/dog do not count against you, as you did not make the conscious decision yourself to add it to your backlog.
Length does not matter. Regardless of whether the game is a couple of hours long, or a 100+ hour RPG, it’ll be worth +/- 1 point. Additionally, feel free to play multiple games at once.
As for DLC, significant DLC will be worth +/-0 .5 points for each individual DLC. You can complete multiple DLC for one title. Since not all DLC is created equal, we’ll leave it up to the council (the competitors) to decide whether a DLC should count for points.
Expansion passes that are purchased count as -0.5 per DLC.
Games about to be delisted are “free” to purchase.
Grace period: December 15th through December 31st every year, any purchases made will not count against you for the next competition. However, this also means that any games completed during this period won’t count either.
These rules aren’t perfect, so if needed, we can modify them as we go. If you have an issue with any of the rules, feel free to bring them up.
How To Play:
Sign up by commenting below! The contest will begin on January 1st, 2025, but challengers can still join afterwards.
Once you’ve beaten a game or bought a game, comment the name of the game and system, then give yourself or remove a point. Scores will then be tallied on our leaderboard.
We run on an honor system. This is meant to be a fun competition, so come on, don’t cheat.
A game doesn’t need to be 100% completed to have it count. But if the game has a story, then at minimum it should consist of beating the main campaign and seeing the credits roll.
Have fun!
The current reigning XboxEra Backlog Champion is @Zip ! Can they be defeated?
Nice! It’s fun to plan out the year (and see how long those plans last…hah) and see what others have in mind.
I’m in the process of planning my gaming schedule, trying to fit in as many backlog games as I can between all the new releases I know I’m going to want to play. I think I will have some more time for gaming this year too, so that bodes well for the completions.
I do have quite a few of those big chonky games too though…
I’m in as well. Doubt I’ll match this years score as Gamepass is stacked in 2025 and got some long RPG types to tackle. Do games bought now but played next year count as a backlog? I’ve bought FF XV which must have been on game pass years ago as have achievements but never got back to it. Also got Like a Dragon Ishin and Man who Erased His Name. Rounded off with a couple of shorter games in Cloudpunk and Stanley Parable. All been on my wishlist for a while and sales were good.
Some other games I’ve had for ages to tackle include Yakuza Like a Dragon, Starfield, AC Valhalla, AC Odyssesy DLC, Greedfall, Kingdom Come, Lost Judgment, Scarlet Nexus and Witcher 3 DLC. Never mind Astral Chain on Switch. And FE Warriors.
Anyway at least by recording that I know where my own challenges are.
Even if just 1 or 2 completed I’ve really enjoyed reading others progress and reviews so in for that alone.
I’m in, I’ll be bringing up the rear as I’ve calculated I’ve got about 50 times less gaming time than I’ve got games in my backlog (let alone all the goodness releasing next year, particularly on Game Pass!).
How are games you claim, like Epic freebies, Humble Choice and Amazon Prime treated - is it 0 but also zero for completion, or treated as if purchased?
I don’t take all the keys every month for Humble at least, just those I know I may one day play - but I suspect it may be a good way to build the biggest ever negative score lol.
On the plus side, since Game Pass switched me on to indies I’ve bought loads of smaller games I use to chill between big games / big decisions in big games - and the competition should encourage me to roll credits more often as just like Joey in Friends I don’t like finishing if I know I’m not going to like it, as that way everyone survives forever
It also means I’ve a load of games I could go back and finally roll credits on I guess - AC Valhalla for example I put a hundred hours in but I hated their depiction of Alfred and Wessex (being a Last Kingdom not a stupid Vikings fan ) so I dropped it…
Crap I forgot I’m halfway through Yakuza LAD, that’ll be another killer long one to finish and if I still really like it I’ll be wanting Infinite Wealth…
Think I bounce off JRPGs sometimes as the dungeons bore me - I hate having to fight my way through a whole area without being able to leave, as my brain is already wanting to go check that shiny thing on the map over there lol
Yeah you forget that not everything was save anywhere as I discovered playing Blue Dragon. Had to stop sometimes as knew if entered a new area was going to be a while before a proper save point.
It depends! If you plan on counting them as positives when you complete them, you should take a negative when you claim them as it is a purchase and active choice.
They do! The period between 15-31st Dec every year is the period where we can restock the backlog without penalties. What you have in your library going into January is your backlog starting point.
I might get off to slow start, since I have the urge to catch up with my Game Pass and PS+ Premium backlogs a bit. But I tend to change my mind every other day, so who knows.
