Microsoft first introduced achievements with the Xbox 360 back in 2005, and the feature has proven to be hugely popular. Achievements have remained an integral part of the gaming experience ever since, with Microsoft making a number of important changes to achievements in the transition from Xbox 360 to Xbox One to ensure they stay relevant.
And now that Xbox is transitioning from Xbox One to Xbox Series X, it's time for Microsoft to improve on the achievement experience yet again. There are a number of ways it could accomplish this, all of which would be solid quality-of-life improvements that would greatly enhance the achievement hunting experience and make them an even more worthwhile endeavor.
Here is how Microsoft can improve achievements with the Xbox Series X.
Separate Base Game from DLC
Likely due to the popularity of Xbox 360's achievements, Sony eventually introduced its own take on the feature with trophies on the PS3. But Sony didn't just copy Xbox 360's achievements. On the contrary, Sony made some important improvements to help its take on achievements stand out. One such improvement was separating the base game from DLC. This way, fans could still have the satisfaction of having completed a game 100% without having that ruined when DLC with achievements was released later on. This is an improvement that many fans have brought up in the past, and it would be great to finally see it implemented with achievements on Xbox Series X.
Clean Slate for Games Played on Xbox Series X
At this point, some fans have over 15 years worth of achievements, and may have fully completed some of their favorite games years ago. It would be nice for Xbox Series X to give players a clean slate, as in, letting them re-unlock achievements from backward compatible Xbox 360 and Xbox One games. Players would still keep all their unlocked Xbox 360 and Xbox One achievements; in this scenario, the Series X would just have its own separate achievements for these games as well. If nothing else, it could give them an excuse to replay some older titles that haven't gotten much attention in recent years, and maybe could it be a feature that fans could opt in and out of.
Original Xbox Achievements
Since achievements were introduced during the Xbox 360 era, original Xbox games do not have achievements. With Microsoft making a big deal out of backward compatibility and pushing to have original Xbox games playable on its new consoles, it would be great to see achievements retroactively added to some of these older titles. Original Xbox games getting achievements may be a more expensive endeavor than one might expect, though, so it's unclear if this is actually feasible. But if so, it would go a long way in injecting some more replay value into older Xbox games.
Better Achievement Rewards
There are many who don't see the point in collecting achievements or trophies, as they rarely result in any other kinds of rewards for players. However, Microsoft has experimented with achievements offering more substantial rewards in the past. For example, the Microsoft Rewards program will sometimes reward players for getting certain achievements, and there once was a time when achievements unlocked Avatar Rewards, which were special items that players could use to customize their Xbox Avatars.
Xbox Avatars took a long time to show up on the Xbox One, but it's possible they will have renewed focus on Xbox Series X. If so, it would be nice for Avatar Rewards to make a comeback, so that players have more reasons to hunt down certain achievements in games. Perhaps Microsoft could offer other rewards for achievement hunters as well, like a small Microsoft Store credit for fully completing a game or something along those lines.
Secret Achievements and Better Tracking
The Xbox achievement UI has had some massive improvements over the years, with one of the biggest being achievement tracking. Now whenever achievements require players to kill X number of enemies or collect X number of items, players can often keep track of the exact number they have already achieved. This gives players a much better idea of how much more work they have to do to get whatever achievement they're going after. But there are many games that don't use tracking for their achievements, so it would be nice to see this become the standard on the Xbox Series X.
Another way to improve the Xbox achievement UI would be to allow players to uncover secret achievements. On PlayStation, players simply have to press a button to see the requirements for a secret trophy, but on Xbox, players have to Google it and figure out which secret achievements they've already unlocked. It is possible to "search for help" directly from the secret achievement page, but that makes the Xbox One open its slow-loading browser and is still not ideal when a simple button press would suffice.