Imagine you are comfortably sitting in the couch, playing video games on your Playstation, but the description of the quest is so tiny and you have to lean forward and twist yourself into a really weird position. That is precisely what happens when a game has really small text font. It makes players frustrate and tired, and eventually drops the controller. It takes players too much energy which they could have used to play the game longer.
Example 1: The Witcher 3
The Witcher 3 is a masterpiece as a whole, but in the earlier versions of The Witcher 3, the font size was so tiny, especially for console players who sits 8 feet away from the TV. It caused players to get exhausted very easily. Luckily, CDPR fixed the problem later on in their patches.
Example 2: The Division
In this game, when trying to check the map locations it is almost impossible to read the text due to the small font size the words are formatted with. This is frustrating and brings the player back to the reality, dragging him/her from the game world and maybe also getting the player confused while trying to understand the places.
Example 3: Rift
As a MMORPG game, it is understandable that there are lots of conversations that are delivered through text. However, it is really inconvenient for players to read texts that are too tiny, and maybe bad to their eyes as well.
Example 4: Dragon Age Inquisition on Xbox 360
Even on an HDTV the text in this game is just a bit too small. It’s not so small as to be illegible, but it’s still an awkward size, and if one sits a little too far from the TV, and doesn’t have great eyesight the tiny text can pose a real problem. And if you are unlucky enough to be playing on a TV that isn’t HD, well just forget about reading the text, it’s not going to happen, just pick a response and hope it’s what you wanted to say.