90% of Gamers Don't Finish Their Games

Only 10% of avid gamers completed the final mission, according to Raptr, which tracks more than 23 million gaming sessions.

Let that sink in for a minute: Of every 10 people who started playing the consensus "Game of the Year," only one of them finished it.

How is that? Shouldn't such a high-rated game keep people engaged? Or have player attention spans reached a breaking point?

Who's to blame: The developer or the player? Or maybe it's our culture?

The correct answer is, in fact, all of the above.

Source: CNN: Why most people don't finish video games

games are getting shorter,now i know why !
 
All the gamers that come to that level will try to beat that game . Since it is the last level the developers will plan something that takes time greater than the normal bosses in that game. and i almost beat game so i hop over to youtube and see the final cutscene . That does no take time and i know the complete story. That's why i think 90% of gamers dont complete their games.
 
If the game is monotonous then yes it looses its appeal & most likely will remain unfinished... This happened to me with NFS UG2. I left it after completing ~90% 'coz got bored. But if its an interesting FPS then everything is left aside to finish that last level... :)
 
look at the downside,
the games are getting shorter as more gamers do not play the game till end.......
"I worked on a project that took 50 people and 18 months to produce 20 minutes of game play," he says. "With the expectations so high for visual and audio fidelity, lifelike animations, enemy behavior and movie-quality cinemas, it can take two years for a team of 100 people to create six hours of playable story. At an average burn rate of $10,000 per man month, that's $24 million just in developer cost. You're not likely to find a publisher that will foot the bill for extending that campaign to 20 hours."

Of course, why make a 20-plus hour game when most players aren't completing them, as is the case with "Red Dead Redemption"? The answer is, most publishers don't.
still we complain that games these days are short!
 
I always try to complete the games.the only one I remember not completing is darksiders in the past year.

The feeling at the end when you finish a game is rather awesome.I feel on top of my geeky world!

As for the report in the op I think the guy who wrote it is considering the once a week casual gamers as "gamers" as well.
 
Except Farcry 2, I think I've completed all the games attempted by far IIRC. I always attempt one at a time on any platform. This way I tend not to get drifted away.

On a side note, I haven't tried Demon's Souls yet. I wonder if I should even attempt it! :p
 
If the gameplay is addictive and interesting I see no reason why a gamer would leave a game unfinished. In fact most might return for additional playthroughs. Too bad that with many games nowadays, by about half completion the gameplay becomes a chore to be completed in order to get to the next unsatisfying cutscene.
 
This is why it is becoming increasingly important to have a strong story driven gameplay. I always tend to complete a game with a good story even if it has a mediocre gameplay whereas games with little or no story elements like say the racing genre remains uncompleted at large.

Here is an example of this trend : GDC: 72 Percent of Players Finished Heavy Rain - PlayStation 3 News at IGN

When you first see a statistic like "72 percent of players who started Heavy Rain finished it", it can be difficult to determine what that means. After all, data needs context. Sure, that number seems high – but in high school that'd be the equivalent of a C, which is average. However, if you compare it to the industry average completion rate, which is 20-25 percent, it's downright astounding.

David Cage, president of Quantic Dream (the company behind the title), revealed this information today at a panel during the Game Developers Conference.

To add in some extra perspective I thought I'd compare Heavy Rain's statistics to another extremely popular title, Mass Effect 2. IGN's overall Game of the Year for 2010, Mass Effect 2 only boasted a 50 percent completion rate despite receiving more critical acclaim. Heavy Rain garnered an 87 average on Metacritic.com, while Mass Effect 2 secured an almost perfect score of 96.
 
There has to be a proper mix of gameplay and a good script.

I was playing deadspace 2 a few months ago and eventhough I felt te gameplay was top notch ,thr story didn't really heighten my pulses.

Comparing that to mass effect 2 and dragon age 2(yep bioware fanboy) it kept me immersed all the time.

We certainly need games with story elements,fps is however another thing altogether.I do want story immersive fps as well.hopefully bulletstorm can open someways!
 
Only game I couldn't complete is GTA 4. Pretty much every other game I played, I've infact even finished a second playthrough atleast.
 
^I have completed it two times already. An awesome graphic mod ( Ice-enhancer 1.25 ) has been released for GTA IV which makes the graphics of the game as good as BF3, in my opinion this would be the best time to revisit/complete the game.
 
anybody thinks that games that are going to be released in the future will be short, and
interested gamers can buy additional content as DLC???????????

as per the topic , developers have to spend more money for additional gameplay content....
why spend more if the gamers are not playing it thru to the final stage!?!
 
I have completed every game 100% & if ever got stuck on some levels, then i refer to friends or google the trick, but never leave the game half played, usually which imo many people do and move onto another game, cursing the gameplay and what not. :|

Usually when i start a new game i finish it off in a week. < gaming 3hrs a day>

But some games like nfs which has crazy career, can actually take more than 10 days to complete.

Of course, without any cheats or trainer used.:bleh:
 
Another point being difficulty of a game leaving the user with no option but to quit. Classic instance - Demon's Souls. The game seems to be very very challenging that most of them simply leave it after a few tries when it becomes extremely frustrating!
 
If the game has an interesting story,people will play it till the end.Too much repetition and a weak storyline makes some games boring after few hours of gameplay.
 
Piracy is another reason why people tend not to finish games, there are just so many other options available. :p I bet if you invested 2500 bucks in a title you would want to get your money's worth by playing every inch of it inspite of it not being such a good game (Personal experience :p).
 
Repetitive gameplay is also a reason for not completing the game. Bioshock 2 is one of such games. Like in a 2-d platformer all that changes is the scenery.
 
Gannu said:
Another point being difficulty of a game leaving the user with no option but to quit. Classic instance - Demon's Souls. The game seems to be very very challenging that most of them simply leave it after a few tries when it becomes extremely frustrating!

Yea, but Demon Soul is probably the only recent game which can be considered difficult. (Also SMB). I havent even seen it, but have read that it is insanely tuff. Anyway, the point is that the general trend is that games are getting easier and easier. So, I dont really think difficulty is the reason people are not completing games.

Bluffmaster mentioned that games need to be story driven, but it would surprise you that Red Dead Redemption, which probably has a very good story-driven campaign is completed by only 10% of the people who bought it! Plus it is a console exclusive, so it doesnt come cheap either. I read somewhere that Assassin Creed 2 also has similarly abysmal completion rate.

I think the real reason is that people are spoilt for choices nowadays. Especially on the consoles.
 
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