Achievement Unlocked 03.06.08: Buying Your Love

Posted by Rod Oracheski on 03.06.2008

With the ability to offer Achievements via DLC add-ons, are companies taking advantage of your addiction?



*shady guy in an alley* Hey kid, you like Achievements? You want some Gamerscore? I've got both, if you're interested.

How about this - 250 more Gamerscore for a game you already have and like, one you beat a few months back and put aside. And how about some new Achievements to get you back into the game and trying new things?

Yeah, it's nice but it'll cost you...

Let's face it, whether you like Achievements for the act of achieving or for the Gamerscore Whore inside you, ever since their introduction they've probably had an affect on the way you play games.

Maybe you play more games, or games outside your comfort zone. A friend who dislikes the endless stream of Cabela's hunting games gave one a rent just because he'd heard the Achievements were easy to get. He's pretty firmly on the Gamerscore Whore side of things.

Even I've done it, renting Naruto: Rise of a Ninja despite knowing absolutely nothing about Naruto at all. It wasn't all about the Achievements, I thought the videos for the game looked pretty amazing, but I'll admit...they factored in to the decision to give it a shot.

Or maybe you're more like another friend, who includes Achievements in his decisions on purchases of multi-platform games - and gives it considerable weight. He picked up Devil May Cry 4 on the 360 instead of the PS3, for example, largely because it has Achievements. While the PS3 version sports the beginnings of a similar system, it's not very well fleshed out at this point.

A 20 minute install? Not a big issue for him.

Marginally better load times? Again, not a dealbreaker or dealmaker for him.

He considered the controllers a wash, leaving the line between Achievements/Accomplishments as the tipping point.

Like it or not, Achievements influence spending and companies are catching on to that trend.


You can see it in the advent of 'pay to play' DLC, which can add up to 250 Gamerscore points via DLC Achievements for retail games or 50 Gamerscore to Xbox Live Arcade games, thanks to a change made to the Xbox 360 Achievements rule just over a year ago.

According to Microsoft's Gamerscore Blog, this is the basic rules framework that publishers need to work within:

1. All regular disc-based games MUST have 1,000 Gamerscore in the base game. This means that any consumer who buys a retail game will have the opportunity to unlock the full 1,000 Gamerscore without having to pay for any add-on content. Note that a publisher may decide to deliver a portion of this Gamerscore via add-on content, but the add-on content will always be free to the consumer.


2. Game publishers will have the option to deliver another 250 incremental Gamerscore on top of the 1,000 via add-on content from Marketplace. This add-on content could be either free or paid. So if you complete a game and earn the full 1,000 GS, you could by getting new add-on content earn up to a total of 1,250 points from a game.


3. Xbox Live Arcade games will operate in similar fashion, but given the size of these titles they will allow you to earn up to 200 Gamerscore from every game and up to another 50 points from add-on content.

So what have companies done under this new set of rules? Let's take a look at Ubisoft title Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2.

While Throwback Packs One and Two (both available free on Marketplace) don't add in new Achievements, both of the 'pay to play' DLC packs (Co-Op Collection One and Two) add in 125 points each, with nine and eight Achievements, respectively.

It's hard to come down on Ubisoft for this though, as the content is very much worth it for those who are fans of the game. The co-op missions were a big part of the experience for a considerable portion of gamers who picked it up, judging by forum chatter, so adding more - and for a reasonable price - makes these Achievements just icing on the cake.

Another game that did it right is Project Gotham Racing 4, which added 10 new Achievements for 250 Gamerscore after launch, but split them up between the free pack (seven Achievements) and the 400-point pack (three Achievements).

The Achievements were bundled in with, in the free pack, a new car (the hydrogen-powered Peugeot Flux), and two new gameplay modes. The 400-point pack scored you seven new cars, three new bikes, and one additional mode, and all that was over and above the content found in the free pack.

It's tough to say the company is trying to leverage your love of Achievements when you get that much content for your $5.

The best of the bunch is, without a doubt, Bioshock. This one added a 100-Gamerscore Achievement in Brass Balls. The fee? Absolutely free.

Also positive karma:

• Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - 250 new Gamerscore in Shivering Isles, along with tons of content.


• Marvel Ultimate Alliance - 12 new Achievements for 250 points. While the 800-point price tag was steep, the new characters were definitely a bonus for comic fans.

There'd be no yardstick for the positives, however, if we didn't have some bad apples in the bunch.

Take Stranglehold, for example. This one added 10 Achievements for 250 Gamerscore. You also got 10 new multiplayer maps and 21 new character skins. Unfortunately calling the game's multiplayer mode unappreciated would be an understatement, and at 1200 points ($15) this was a definite no go for all but the most dedicated fans.

Also on the negative end of the spectrum is Beautiful Katamari, which launched with 1250 Gamerscore available, but 250 weren't actually Achievable without buying 1500 points worth of DLC. Keep on rolling, buddy - that's a no sale.

Another cloudy aura:

• Naruto: Rise of the Ninja - Now I liked the game, but buying 500-point character packs seems awfully steep...

As was mentioned, even Xbox Live Arcade games can get in on the action, popping in another 50 Gamerscore via DLC. Not many have taken advantage though, and most have been decent about it. Pinball FX, for example, adds a new Achievement with the purchase of a 200-point table. GripShift gives you three Achievements for 50 Gamerscore, and it'll only run you 350 points.

Honestly, while I'm cautiously concerned about what publishers might do if they catch on to how much we love our Achievements, it's largely unfounded worry at this point - as most of the 'nickel and dime' worries about Xbox Live Marketplace have proven to be.

I hope that publishers realize DLC Achievements are an easy way to spice up their game and get us playing - and talking - about it again. What better way is there to advertise your months-old game than using the power of word of mouth for free? You drop new Achievements in there with some new content and we're bound to be buzzing about your game again. Hell, you even make a little money doing it if you charge for the DLC - but keep it reasonable!

It doesn't have to be tons of new content, just keep the cost down, give us a few things to do and a few Gamerscore for doing it, and we'll come running with cash in hand.



Trying to get the Lost Odyssey review done, so I've played almost nothing but this week. This game is sizable, especially if you're someone who wants to tackle the 'special' mobs and work through skill and character combinations. I picked up a few Achievements for boss fights but, as I said in an earlier column, this isn't a game that does Achievements particularly well.

Fortunately the rest of the game more than makes up for that. If you're a JRPG fan who's moved into the next-gen, you'd be missing out of you didn't give it a chance.

On another note, it's interesting that, more and more, companies are releasing their Achievement lists before the game comes out. We saw that again this week with the list for Condemned 2 hitting the Internet.

The original game was a great launch title for the 360, and the sequel - a multiplatform release - should be another must-play. I'm not sold on the multiplayer aspect, but the first had such great atmosphere (play it alone and in the dark with surround sound for the ultimate experience!) that I'll be checking this one out Day Freaking One.

In any case, the releasing of the lists ahead of time just goes to show you that companies are thinking of their Achievements more and more these days. Just how much? We'll look at that next week.