Achievements improve game reviews and sales, says study

Electronic Entertainment Design and Research has released a study finding a correlation between 360 game achievements and both review scores and gross sales.

The US study also found that 29 per cent of achievements are awarded for completion, leaving a lot of room for developers to implement them in more creative ways.

As part of the study, EEDAR looked at 4,615 achievements incorporated in 124 retail and 63 downloadable game titles available for the Xbox 360 between November 1, 2005 and June 1, 2007. It identified 16 unique types of accomplishments and referenced factors such as genre, ESRB rating, gross sales, and Metacritic Metascores.

The result showed a "strong connection" between a game's diversity of achievement types with that game's profitability, pointing to the idea that the more diverse the achievements available to the user, the more enjoyable the game, the higher review scores, and the more units sold.

"Consumers want their games to include both variety and abundance of Accomplishments," said Geoffrey Zatkin, EEDAR's COO.

"Our research shows that incentives such as Accomplishments impact sales choices such as which game title to buy and which platform to buy it on; they also extend the replayability of a title."

According to EEDAR, games that incorporate online elements into their achievements generate 50 per cent more money than those that do not.

It also found that games which keep their achievements secret generate less revenue than those who expose them to players upfront.