by November hosted Microsoft’s annual hackathon event, bringing together groups of developers, designers, and innovators from across Microsoft to compete and invent new potential products and services within and outside of the Microsoft ecosystem. The winner of this year’s hackathon was an app that lets you provide tech support to a loved one remotely, given the all-too-familiar frustration of trying to help a less-technical friend over the phone.
Microsoft’s Hackathon 2022 event (opens in new tab) More than 10,000 inventions competed for the grand prize, and more than 68,000 employees around the world participated in what Microsoft calls the “world’s largest private hackathon.”
I’ve recently had the opportunity to review some of the hackathon projects myself thanks to trusted sources, and some of the Xbox-centric projects certainly caught my eye. One project involved a “Windows Handheld Mode” shell for Windows 11, which transforms the user interface into something more suitable for handheld PC-based Steam Deck-sized play. It also unveiled prototypes of streaming services that would reward viewers with Microsoft Points for watching live streams on Xbox while integrating with Twitch or Patreon. Another idea was an “Xbox Inventory” system that would allow you to collect in-game cosmetic items and carry them between titles. My favorite project – and one that I feel is much needed – is an expansion of the existing Xbox achievements system, something the designers have dubbed Xbox Achievements 3.0.
Although it’s unclear who is behind the project, a team of designers and developers at Microsoft came together during this year’s hackathon event to create a proof of concept for what they call “Xbox Achievements 3.0.” This system would sit alongside the existing Gamerscore system and award players with PlayStation-like bronze, silver, and gold trophies for various achievements per title and even at the system level. For example, in the video shared with us anonymously above, you can see a concept medal pop for playing 300 titles on Xbox Game Pass.
The presentation also showed how each medal count is displayed under your profile on Xbox.com and on consoles, giving players another way to showcase their achievements in various activities on Xbox Live (which has since been renamed the Xbox Network, though no one will call it that).
In any case, this concept is tempting, although it will most likely never lead to an actual product. It’s reminiscent of some of the suggestions for the discontinued Xbox career system from yesterday, when Microsoft acknowledged the fact that gamer habits have changed. More and more players are sticking to a single service-oriented title for longer periods of time, rather than grazing across multiple titles. However, Xbox Game Pass’s all-you-can-eat library keeps Xbox achievements afloat. Vampire Survivors features mountains of 5G Gamerscore achievements popping up at the end of each run, which is truly exemplary use of the aging system. However, many unscrupulous indie publishers have chosen to release Shovelware games designed solely to do 1000 Gamerscore for practically nothing – a practice Sony PlayStation is reportedly no less keen to ban.
In any case, the fact that developers internally at Microsoft consider this to be hobbyists themselves suggests that there is increasing attention to how few Xbox achievements have evolved while competitors like PlayStation and Steam have evolved and improved the systems , which Microsoft pioneered back in the day. Improving Xbox achievements was, after all, one of the top concerns from Xbox fans that was communicated to me during the large feedback poll I conducted last year.
For my part, I hope that one day we will see something like these Xbox “medals” materialize in a real product.
