One of the most interesting additions that the last generation of consoles contributed was the topic of Achievements on Xbox 360. Microsoft took advantage of a concept that had been developed a long time ago, from the leaderboards in the arcades, but without that social and visibility component on the internet .
Seen with suspicion at first, even with people who still do not see the meaning of this Achievement, the giants ended up falling little by little, from Valve to Sony and even the market for mobile phones and tablets. Except for Nintendo, which goes to your ball (save for ‘Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition’).
It took Sony three years to realize the impact that Achievements were having on video game culture, as if it were a drug (because of how addicted it turns out to get 100% for completists), seeing how in mid-2008 it introduced its own variant, the Trophies .
And the silly thing has already been ten years.
The start of the Trophies was Bronze
If we consider that PlayStation 3 was released in 2006, and that Xbox 360 did so in 2005 with the series Achievements, it is clear how long it took for Sony to make its replica. It was in early July 2008, using PS3 firmware 2.40, officially released in mid-June of that year.
However, the renewed XMB menu of the console with the addition of the Trophies was an ordeal for the Japanese company in its first days of life, with many users reporting errors. Additionally, Sony made it clear early on that not all games would feature Trophies. Standardization for novelties would take several months to adopt: in January 2009.
There were PS3 classics that came out before the arrival of the Trophies that did have this incentive through a later patch, such as ‘Uncharted: Drake’s Treasure’ or ‘Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots’, to name a couple of the most popular. But there were also great and incomprehensible absences.
These are the most striking cases of PS3 games without Trophies :
- Assassin’s Creed
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
- Devil May Cry 4
- Eternal Sonata
- Folklore
- Haze
- Heavenly Sword
- Lair
- Ninja Gaiden Sigma
- Ratchet & Clank: Armados hasta los dientes
- Resistance: Fall of Man
- Ridge Racer 7
- Saints Row 2
- Silent Hill Homecoming
- Skate
- The Orange Box
- Time Crisis 4
- Valkyria Chronicles
- Virtua Fighter 5
What are the differences between Trophies and Achievements?
Going headlong into what the Trophies brought in, Sony stood out a bit by endowing each special feat with a four-tier rank of importance .
The Bronze would be the Trophy of least value, and the most numerous in practically any game; the Silver Trophy would enjoy more status and its presence would be less; the Gold Trophy, in general, would be given when completing the story or making 100% collectibles; and finally Platinum if we got all of the above. All in theory , because, as we know, it is not always true.
Sony’s policy with the Platinums is, to say the least, controversial and whimsical. While Xbox 360 standardized the 1,000G (with the exception of ‘Condemned’, with 970G, the only case I know of), neither PS3, nor PS Vita, nor PS4 have managed to unify a standard with the Platinum, seeing authentic aberrations with Platinum that are They get in 5 minutes without doing anything, while games are more hard and, above all, long-lasting, sometimes they don’t even have a measly Gold: all Bronzes, with a good pair.
But the PlayStation company did hit the mark with that completist eagerness that the Platinums guarantee . That kind of select club that not many can enter (except for the aid of the Telltale Games adventures, which they give away if you spend the games) and that, when older, affects the level of our user. A distinction that does not stop growing as we accumulate Trophies and with truly spectacular feats, such as that of the user Hakam Hakim, with more than 1,500 Platinum today. A similar case to Stallion83 on Xbox, with almost two million points in Achievements, holding number one there.
Immortalizing feats and rarity level
Over the years, Sony has perfected everything related to Trophies. While it still takes a long time to sync on PS3, the implementation of different levels of rarity based on the people who achieved them was highly applauded: common, uncommon, rare, very rare and ultra rare.
Microsoft ended up incorporating this concept using simply percentages and varying in a very cool way the obtaining of an Achievement that has unlocked 10% (or less) of people, as if it were an ultra-rare Gem. Needless to say, these rarity percentages have also been around for a long time on Steam.
But perhaps one of the things that have been liked the most within the Trophy news throughout these years, are those automatic captures for obtaining each Trophy , especially for those that immortalize all those Platinums that we get, provoking the player an attempt to find that beautiful picture worthy of sharing and that the feat remains on record.
No, it has not been my case with ‘Bloodborne’, ugly as hell.
Ok, but … are Trophies good for something else?
This is the eternal question for those who continue to view everything related to Achievements and Trophies with suspicion, and here, unfortunately, we are still waiting. Because Sony started the Sony Rewards program last year, where Trophies are rewarded with money (not retroactively).
The problem? Which is still unique to the United States .
On Xbox and Windows we have the Microsoft Rewards program, but it is more oriented towards purchases and certain progress we make, rewarding us with both money and juicy gifts, although at the beginning of 2018 it was dropped that Microsoft would be working on a new rewards program with the achievements, beyond the seen with Xbox 360, with pokes for our Avatar.
Be that as it may, blessed ten years of Trophies . And of Achievements.
- PS3
- Industry
- Playstation Vita
- PS4
