Xbox achievement hunters have something to look forward to this year, as the platform is planning its own take on the platinum trophy.
When the Xbox 360 launched in 2005, it came with a new feature known as achievements. If you do something cool in the game or make progress in the story, you’ll be rewarded with points and an achievement to display on your profile. It was a really smart way to keep players engaged, push them to do things they might otherwise avoid, and increase competition. While Xbox wasn’t the first company in gaming to utilize a feature like this, it absolutely popularized it, and it led to competitors like PlayStation mimicking the idea with trophies.
The trophy model is nearly identical to achievements, but the only difference is that you get a special reward when you get all the trophies in a PlayStation game: the lucrative platinum trophy. It’s the end-all, be-all for completionists and now, Xbox is trying to emulate that. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has confirmed that, along with other updates to achievements, the team is looking to implement some kind of platinum trophy equivalent on Xbox later this year.
No details were provided on what that will look like, but it is exciting nevertheless. Typically, the average game’s achievements cap out at 1,000 gamerscore, unless it’s a collection of games or there’s DLC. It’s unclear if this new completionist achievement will add more gamerscore or be standalone as a recognition for your efforts.
This is something the Xbox community has wanted for a while, so it’s great to see Microsoft implementing this level of feedback. It would be one of the biggest changes and additions to the Xbox achievement system since its introduction 21 years ago. It’s unclear if this will retroactively apply to other games or if it will only be possible in new games, but it should be really cool regardless.
Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN’s news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
