How to fix low completion rate of games?

September 1st, 2011

A new report by CNN suggests only 10% of players finish their games. Lousy. The reason: The aging gamer (who is busier than before), a glut of games, and the rise of multiplayer.

When isolated to dedicated gamers only, that number jumps to an estimated 40-50%, "but it still means more than half of all game content never gets appreciated," the article states.

Granted, things are a little different for PC games, many of which don't have an end (i.e. MMOs, multiplayer-only games, etc). But a lot of great PC games have endings too, and most of you aren't seeing them all. 

That said, I find that pathetic completion rate troubling from a design perspective, even though it's on par with my own completion rate and many of yours too, according to a post I wrote last year.

So... Are single-player games really that bad? Have story modes become so predictable that we don't even care to see how they end? And should games be able to hold our attention longer, even to the end?

I don't have the answers, and I believe the above stated reasons play a significant role in poor completion rates. But I also believe some of the blame has to be placed on the medium itself.

What do you think?

Read more: PC gaming stories