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Your Achievements Will Transfer To Xbox One, Can Be Added Post-Release

by Jeff Cork on May 21, 2013 at 08:45 AM

Apparently you can take it with you. Microsoft announced during its Xbox reveal event that players’ Xbox 360 profiles and achievements are making the transition to the new system.

That’s good news to players who have toiled over the past seven years to scrounge up every last bit of Gamerscore from the Xbox 360 library. Microsoft has also revealed how the concept of achievements is expanding in the next generation.

“We find a pattern where a user will purchase a game, they’ll play the game, they’ve maxed out achievements within three to four weeks, but they’re playing the game six months later,” says Chad Gibson, Xbox Live’s principal group program manager. “We really want to enable our achievement system to fully embrace cloud power, which is why in this generation we’ve got cloud achievements. Achievements are decoupled from the actual client of the game, so a game developer can be adding achievements weekly, monthly, or quarterly and constantly be adding new opportunities for the game player and to constantly maintain and offer fun experiences for those users, even if they’ve been playing the game for six, seven, eight months.”

Companies can release new achievements for a retail game to keep players playing. The current system allows publishers to incorporate additional achievements with DLC. This is different. Under the new system, players can earn achievements that are doled out beyond the current 1,000 limit that accompanies retail games. 

The new system offers publishers a considerable amount of freedom. Achievements and challenges can span between several games in a publisher’s library. For instance, Activision could hypothetically keep track how far a player runs in their entire Call of Duty career, rewarding players with an achievement when they hit a particular distance milestone. Or EA could award points to players who win a Madden game with a team that’s bound for the Super Bowl.

Microsoft didn’t say whether players’ avatars would be making the move, but they were conspicuously absent from the console’s reveal.

 

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