“It’s been statistically shown that games that have achievements and implement them well sell better,” states Stephen Toulouse, the head of Xbox LIVE policy at Microsoft’s Live Services Group, when appearing on Major Nelson’s podcast recently.
Backing up his claims is a study conducted in 2007 by Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR), which focuses on the Xbox 360 Achievement system and its impact on review scores, sales, and profitability. It states “the results showed a strong connection between a game title’s diversity of accomplishment types with that game’s profitability – pointing to the idea that the more diverse the accomplishments available to the user, the more enjoyable the game, higher review scores, more units sold.”
In addition, EEDAR found that 50 percent more money was generated by titles which implement online elements into their Achievements, rather than those which do not.
