Sinds Microsoft begon met het uitbrengen van Xbox Live Arcade titels, zijn er een aantal regels voor de developers opgesteld. Deze houden in dat er maar 200 GamerScore mag zijn, die uit maximaal twintig Achievements besaat. Maar volgens de website xbox360achievements.org gaat daar binnenkort verandering in komen en mag alles nu een stap hoger. Wat natuurlijk beter is voor de echte Achievment hoertjes onder ons.

Update: Major Nelson (aka Larry Hryb van Microsoft) heeft het nu bevestigd, het is waar en gaat vanaf April in.

A few years back we received a scoop from an industry vet about the unpublished achievement policy of retail games. That scoop proved prophetic and the rules he outlined have stayed true thus far, though it was recently revealed that the new cap would be raised to 2000, a mark we'll first see with Gears of War 3's Forces of Nature DLC later this month. Our friend (who still wishes to remain anonymous) is back with a new scoop on an upcoming change to the Xbox Live Arcade achievement policy! Microsoft is upping the ante quite a bit. First, let's discuss the evolution of these rules to date.

OLD RULES

Base: 200 Gamerscore / Max of 20 Achievements

DLC: Up to 50 Gamerscore + 5 Achievements per Quarter (3 Max)

Total: Up to 350 Gamerscore / 35 Achievements

The very first set of achievement rules for XBLA stood the longest: 200 Gamerscore and 12 Achievements. That was the only option for years. As Downloadable Content became more and more prevalent, we had an increase of 50 Gamerscore and up to 5 new achievements available. Then they made allowances for up to three DLC additions, garnering a new cap of 350 Gamerscore. Later, alongside the release of the Windows Phone platform, the base game could have up to 20 achievements instead of only 12, while the DLC rules remained the same. Starting soon, the policy is set to change once again.

NEW RULES

Base: 400 Gamerscore / Max of 30 Achievements

DLC: Up to 100 Gamerscore + 8 Achievements per Quarter (4 Max)

Total: Up to 800 Gamerscore / 62 Achievements

The new rules as seen above are a gigantic step up. Doubling the base requirement of the Gamerscore itself, greatly increasing the number of available achievements and allowing for more DLC additions gives companies much more room to work with. These new rules give more opportunities for better progression of achievements through story and multiplayer, as well as allowing for more unique and fun achievements that we often see in retail games, but can be rare for an arcade. It also can lengthen the development cycle for a single game, allowing a company to offer up to a full year of DLC additions that can increase the game's Gamerscore.