My current gaming problem

Usually, I just try to make sure I only spend money on games I feel pretty confident that I’ll have fun with. Sometimes it takes me a few months to play much of a game. I bought Final Fantasy XV in spring, for example, but only played it to completion this past month.

What you don’t play immediately you can save for the summer game release drought.

Nothing wrong with having a backlog. I have one that spans decades at this point. As long as you're not one of those compulsive Steam buyers that has thousands of games on their account and actually played maybe 2, you're probably alright.

The consequences of not whittling down your backlog:

Watched both Injustice "movies" (and MK10), as well as the Shadow of War/Mordor series. I thought both had phenomenal stories (surprising from Injustice, being a fighting game and me not being that into DC) and cool concepts to think about, but I couldn't be assed with the gameplay itself.

I can't help you, since I'm too picky about games to have that problem.   I actually have the opposite problem of long dry spells between games. Anyhoo ...

Taking a parallel from another hobby/interest where I'm more of an accumulator, put a sunset provision on whatever you buy. Like give it 2 years. Put a label on it if it's physical, or calendar reminder if it's digital, to get rid of it you haven't played it by the expiration date. If you haven't gotten to it in 2 years, you're not gonna.

(Confession time: this method isn't 100% reliable. I've had to repurchase items from that other hobby because it turns out that after I got rid of it after it's expiration date, and more years went by, I discovered I needed it and had to buy it again. But at least I got to it right away and didn't put it on a shelf for another 2 years ...)

As a person who has played over 300 games so far in my gaming career...

My advice:
If you love it -play it.
If you don't love it but think you may want to play it later -set it aside.
If you are certain you never will play it -give it away for another you want -or dump it in the trash.
Also try to focus on a game a month -or if completed faster 1 game a week or day -weekend speaking.
Or if you can keep the games stories straight and you are like me: Play FOUR games in tandem.
I would shift between them every hour -always good if one of different types: 1FPS, 1RPG, 1RTS, 1Adventure, ect.

^ I have the same problem...
Well it's actually not a problem because it saves me a lot of money playing so few games. I do have a backlog of about 20 (short indie) games. Not much compared to compulsive Steam sale buyers. But it... annoys me.

These days I get consumed by Bethesda games and others that take a long time to complete. And I can go months without playing anything else. When I eventually finish one of these addictive games I'm burned out and often take a Netflix watching break from gaming for several weeks.

I agree, there's not much coming out that appeals to me. Compared to last decade, where a lot of the games added to my backlog were simply me hearing about a game and promising myself I'd play it (and occasionally getting it for cheap on Steam before I had the specs to run it lol).

Part of that is a slight shifting of taste. I was primarily an FPS guy prior to Mass Effect and I've talked at length about how that game made others feel un-immersive and "lonely". Ironically Mass Effect is also a thing I just sort of "fell into", having only seen a bit of ME2 as a "tech demo" when a friend was getting a custom rig, and later when I got my gaming laptop and we both bought ME1 and 2 on a Steam sale for $20. These days shooters suck anyway, but even some of the better ones don't draw me like they used to. The exception is Doom, and that got in on nostalgia (though it is a genuinely good game from a gameplay perspective).

I'm still not sure I consider myself an RPG guy as I don't actively look for new ones. That Cyberpunk game drew my eye mostly because that slight anti-SWJ nontroversy. That factors positively, but I'm not about to "politically" buy games. We'll have to see if it's actually any good.

But yeah, most recent games, I sort of just fell into. Dishonored for example, I only got because I was fooling around in GMod and someone had put up a Blink mod that emulated the same power from the game. It was fun enough to try in its own game, and the rest is history.

So I have this idea for what I should be doing with my gaming future. While for now (still living with my parents and family) I can't do much, I'll go through my current catalog of games to find out which ones I enjoy playing and would play again, and which ones I probably won't touch for a while. When I eventually decide to move out, I'll keep one of my consoles (or purchase the latest model of whichever console I choose to keep), purchase a proper gaming PC or laptop, and then sign up for either a game rental service or rely on Steam and other game stores for future games.