Xbox Achievements have largely remained the same since the launch of the Xbox One all the way back in 2013, and after a long wait, Xbox is bringing some small but meaningful visual changes to its beloved gameplay reward system.
Xbox is updating the look of achievement pops
Ever since their debut on the Xbox 360 in 2005, Achievements have remained an important part of the Xbox ecosystem over 20 years later. With that said, many Achievement hunters have begun to feel like the feature has grown stale, as it hasn’t received any significant updates in over a decade. Xbox controversially decided against creating a new UI for the launch of its Series X and S consoles in 2020, meaning that its Achievement system remained the same as it was in the Xbox One generation.
In a new Xbox Wire post, Xbox revealed three new visual changes it’s making to how Achievements look when unlocked and how they can be displayed on Xbox gamers’ profiles. The trophy and diamond icons that appear in normal and rare Achievement notifications respectively have each received a refreshed look, with the diamond icon in rare Achievement pops also now appearing with a small laurel underneath it. These overhauled Achievement notifications will take on the hue of gamers’ custom colors, a new profile feature that’s set to roll out to Xbox users this month. The Xbox Wire post also mentioned updated unlock animations; perhaps the new Achievement pops will look different than they currently do in motion.
Xbox users can hide and highlight games on their profile
Xbox gamers who have earned 100% completion in a game will find that game automatically highlighted with an extra dash of color in their Xbox profiles. Much like the Xbox 360 Achievement system, which provided players a separate list displaying all their 100% completed games, this new Achievement update adds a new filter option to gamers’ profiles so they can see all their 100% completions in a single list.
On the other hand, the new update lets players hide games with completion percentages they might not be happy with. This was previously able to be done with demos or with games that users hadn’t yet unlocked an Achievement in. Giving Xbox fans agency over which games they want to have on display is a big deal and a feature that fans have been requesting for quite some time. It’s important to note that hiding a game won’t remove its Gamerscore from gamers’ totals, so fans won’t have to worry about their Gamerscore dropping when hiding titles from their Achievement lists.
While this small handful of Achievement changes are certainly welcome, and they do add a bit more celebratory flair and agency to Xbox users’ profiles, the more in-depth changes fans have been asking for, like DLC Achievement separation and a PlayStation Platinum Trophy equivalent have yet to be confirmed. However, near the end of the Xbox Wire post, Xbox did mention that this is a “first step” and that more changes and updates are coming in the future.
These Achievement changes are sure to excite the Xbox community, but for now, they’re only available to those in Xbox’s Insider Program. Fans can expect the update with all three Achievement changes to roll out to everyone sometime within the next few months.
The post Xbox Is Finally Updating Its Achievement System in 3 Big Ways appeared first on VICE.
