Good news Achievement fans, Microsoft have confirmed that as of next month all their Xbox Live Arcade titles can opt to increase their collectable Gamerscore for 200 to 400 points. With this comes an upgrade to 30 potential Achievements from the current 20 limit that will allow developers more options when issuing their additional game objectives.
The new 400 point limit will be mandatory for all new XBLA releases from June this year with developers being able to opt into the scheme from April.
The new Achievement Policy was first noted by Xbox360Achievements and shows that Microsoft are really looking into keeping gamers playing their new releases, especially those of the downloadable variety.
On top of this is another increase in the XBLA DLC Policy. The current standard practise is 50 extra Gamerscore with a possible 5 more Achievements per quarter; totalling a maximum of 350 Gamerscore and 35 extra Achievements in total. These ceilings have also been increased with 100 Gamerscore and 8 Achievements being available per quarter with a maximum of 800 Gamerscore and 62 Achievements in total.
Developers will be able to release more achievement driven content now and potentially continue to release these for a full 2 years following the initial release of a product.
After my article on the state of Xbox Live a few weeks ago I am more than a little happy to see that Microsoft have increased their content thresholds on Achievements. Content driven by these has always more successful in sales and gives people an added incentive to part with their hard earned cash. It’ll be great to see developers offering more for the consumer’s money and potentially investing more time into their additional content streams because they have the chance now to get more consumers involved.
I suppose time will tell what approach the developers have with their games now and at the moment my only gripe is that Mass Effect 3 is still covered by the old policy limits.
0 comments :
Post a Comment
Leave a Comment...