360 Achievement Rewards

[zero]

Just got this off IGN:

Rewarding Achievements Coming to 360?

Rumor has it, playing Xbox games could soon net you fabulous prizes.

by Hilary Goldstein

January 29, 2007 - Xbox Achievements could soon net gamers true rewards. According to unscripted360.com, next month Microsoft will introduce a rewards program to benefit both hardcore 360 players and casual gamers alike.

The report claims that the rewards program will be free and that rewards will be tied to specific achievements. No other details were offered, but if true, this could catapult Microsoft's online offering to a level Sony and Nintendo's new consoles cannot reach. Win cool stuff just by playing games? Sounds good to us.

Microsoft offered neither confirmation nor denial of the rewards program. "We have nothing to say about these rumors or speculation," a Microsoft spokesperson told IGN. "However, what we can tell you is that Xbox is always exploring ideas for how we can reward our loyal customers. As soon as we have anything new to share, we will definitely let you know."

Microsoft has been a big supporter of community sites, going so far as to award bloggers with "MVP" honors. The MVPs sometimes get special invites to check out 360 games early. It's a great reward for fans. DeaconBlade 360, who founded Unscripted 360, is a bonafide MVP member and claims that it's through this status he was able to obtain this information.

Time will prove the veracity of these claims. Even if they are untrue, the positive stir this rumor has created among the Xbox community could prove enough to encourage Microsoft to pursue a rewards program.

This would be awesome. Hope to see this come true as it would be just another reason to keep paying the $50 a year for XBL.

[Toe]

If they offered something like a free download of an older XBOX Live Arcade game after getting so many achievements, that would be pretty cool. XBOX Live is already a great service, that would be just a little icing on the cake.

[King Ellis]

If this is true I think it will have to live up to the 'both hardcore 360 players and casual gamers alike' part. As easy as it would be just take the easy route and say 'If you get so many points you get _____.' there is an element of 'point whoring' through easily achived points in games and the fact people can just rent or borrow to horde points.

Still, 'Points mean prizes' would have been a better subtitle.

[zero]

It did say "specific achievements" though, so it couldn't be as easily abused. For instance, if it were Smackdown vs. RAW, perhaps you'd get a prize for beating Season on Legend, not for creating a belt.

[King Ellis]

I'm still skeptical about it even within those parameters. Without much information I can't help but play devils advocate and see this in a negative light.

Of course it's all just speculation at this point and might not even be true but looking at it from the extreme end of the scale where you get a prize for getting a certain achivement from a certain game, if the prize is grand enough then people would probably just label it as another marketing ploy like they are doing at the moment with the 'Halo 3 Beta with Crackdown'.

[zero]

But what's wrong with the marketing ploy of the Halo beta with Crackdown? Hell, how many people bought Zone of Enders simply because of the MGS2 demo? That's just smart business.

[King Ellis]

Well yes, from a business point of view it's a great tactic and this has the potential to be too if it worked in a similar way. I was looking at this from my point of view as the consumer and...I don't know, i'm not getting any grand ideas of what these rewards could be.

[Gongsun Zan]

Chances are it'll probably be a bunch of avatars/themes.

[Corizzle]

Chances are it'll probably be a bunch of avatars/themes.

[Kaney]

I like it. It might not be a terrible fantastic prize, and it might not be terrible easy to achieve, but it's always nice to get something extra for nothing. I almost definently agree the prizes will be silly things like gamerpics, but there were rumours a while back of having the micropoints system overhauled, allowing you to earn points through games, or trade/sell stuff from your 360 for points. Another thing brought up was having actual accessories like the wireless adapter, or a second pad placed on the Marketplace, for a sufficient amount of micropoints. It'll likely never happen, but this could be a step in the right direction.

Edited January 30, 2007 by Kaney Doesn't DBandwaggons

[zero]

Agreed with Kaney and Corizzle. Even giving away something as pointless as a gamerpic would be cool because I'm getting rewarded for playing. I don't care what it is, it's free!

[Toe]

I really want a Toronto Maple Leafs gamer pic, but I am not willing to give out money for it. If that was the reward, that would be awesome enough for me.

[Corizzle]

I really want a Toronto Maple Leafs gamer pic, but I am not willing to give out money for it. If that was the reward, that would be awesome enough for me.

Edited January 31, 2007 by Corizzle

[Toe]

I'd pay tribute to the current Leafs. They don't win as much but I still love them!

I just really don't want to buy any Points or whatever they are called.

[Miami Vice]

It'll only be cool if the rewards are worth while. If for beating a game and getting full achivment points you only get an exclusive music video or some shit then it will blow.

[Kaney]

As opposed to just getting a nice warm fuzzy feeling when you completely beat a game?

[-A-]

An exclusive music video would pretty much be the best I could hope for. Gamerpics or shitty themes seem much more likely.

[Trey]

They could always have it where you get the gamerpics or whatever, but you also get entered into a random drawing with the winner getting a bigger prize.

[Guest muddatrucker]

I don't think I could think of a prize shitter than a music video, I mean they're free to watch on MTV, they're also usually boring as sin. I'd sooner get bird flu.

[Corizzle]

http://www.xbox.com/rewards

The new program, you can earn a copy of Contra from the XBLA and an exclusive gamerpic at the lowest level, but the highest level(the one I could easily be in by the time it starts Feb 12) you could get Fuzion Frenzy 2, Contra, 200 M$ points and an exclusive gamerpic.

Unfortunately, the first challenge is US only, hopefully they open it up worldwide, I want a free copy of Fuzion Frenzy 2

Edited February 7, 2007 by Corizzle