It has been more than 18 years since the Xbox ‘Gamerscore’ system was implemented for the launch of the Xbox 360. That’s right – you’re that old. For the longest time, maximising your performance on a game and snatching every single achievement landed you with nothing more than a ‘100%’ rating, but if recent claims are to be believed, Xbox could be getting ‘Platinum-styled’ achievements in future.
Go Platinum
In a recent episode of The Xbox Two Podcast, insider Jez Corden spoke about this ‘notable rumour’, discussing the potential for an achievement rehash to take place in the near future. For the most part, Xbox’s achievement system has remained relatively unchanged since it was introduced, save for a few tweaks to notification sounds, percentage ratings, and some smart tracking systems.
Reportedly, while attending GamesCom, Corden caught up with a senior employee from Xbox and got talking about the achievement system – and it was said that the tech titan wants to introduce ‘Platinum’ achievements.
Now, if you’re not in the know, we’re calling it ‘Platinum’ because that’s how PlayStation has done it for many years. If you unlock every trophy in a PlayStation game, you’ll be presented with the ultimate prize – the Platinum trophy.
Here’s the snippet of Corden talking about this potential new feature:
In Corden’s words, there are much bigger priorities at Xbox, and the revamp of the achievement system could get lost in that backlog and never really surface. However, should Platinum achievements ever surface, it could push more players to actively dive deeper into their games, incentivising completing them.
Are you an achievement hunter or could you not care less about them?
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I can remember thinking 18 years ago that achievements were at best going to be pretty meaningless (and at worst the system was just stupid) because GS points aren’t redeemable for anything.
I’m not an “achievement hunter” but I gotta say I quickly learned to really like the system. I often (still) look up the achievements for each game, and there is a nice little feeling of accomplishment when I get an achievement notification. (And some games leave me wondering “Just what do I have to do to get an achievement from this game?!?”)
I don’t think adding platinum achievements will be a “game changer” for most people, but it’s a fun little addition nonetheless.
Of course I still wish Microsoft would merge Gamerscore/achievements and Microsoft Rewards, but that’s probably never going to happen. So many gamers unlock lots of achievements and GS on a daily basis Microsoft would be awarding thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of e-giftcards every day.