Xbox May Be Planning To Change The Achievement System

Microsoft's Achievements were one of the main reasons a lot of gamers got into the competitive side of the Xbox brand way back in the day. They've been a staple for giving gamers something to strive for in skill-based video games published on Microsoft's platforms. Well, there may be some changes in the works to alter the achievement system.

According to Windows Central, Microsoft could be rolling out a new kind of rewards system for Achievements known as a Career system. This will be different from the Gamescore that players rack up across multiple games, as it's designed to reward players who have made a career out of eSports or are attempting to make a career out of eSports. Players will be able to earn rewards, level up and even potentially unlock loot boxes along the way.

Essentially, the way the current system works is that there is a set number of Gamerscore to be earned from each game. You can play it as much as you want, but you're not going to be able to earn additional Gamerscore once you hit that cap. However, for eSports players or professional competitors who focus solely on a specific game like Overwatch or Halo or Call of Duty, it can be a bummer that, even as you excel in the game and continue to get better, once you hit that Gamerscore cap there's no further Achievements to be earned.

However, with Microsoft's new Career system it will enable diehard players who continue to pump time and effort into a game to unlock special rewards for their efforts through Quests. These specific objectives will come with additional experience points and rewards, such as loot crates that can be unlocked to upgrade your Xbox Avatar. Unlike the Achievements, you can level up your character profile through the Career system, so the more prestige ranks you achieve the more rewards you unlock and the more you'll be able to showcase and broadcast your achievements to your friends and rivals.

According to the article, the Career system will also have objectives that may span multiple games, so for those of you who still play a wide variety of titles, it will be possible to keep ranking up and unlocking new rewards by playing a variety of games.

If the system does contain cosmetic rewards, it would fit in nicely with Microsoft's new Xbox Avatar system that has been overhauled with all new hair, clothing items and accessories.

The report also indicates that this new rewards system won't be entirely replacing the standard Achievements that can earn you Gamerscore. So the Career objectives will compliment the current system rather than completely replace it.

However, Windows Central does note that this is all early and the current system that was available for access (which is not front-facing the public at the moment) looks as if it will track your overarching Career profile and allow you to see how much time you've invested into gaming, what sort of games you play and what you've achieved through the objectives and the traditional Achievement system.

For now this is still a rumor, even though Microsoft exec Mike Ybarra did mention that the company was looking to overhaul the Achievement system. But don't be surprised if there's an announcement about the feature later on down the road.