Epic Games Store to feature achievements starting next week

Ever since the mid-2000s, several gaming services have offered optional achievement systems that allow players to squeeze a bit more mileage out of their games. And now, less than three years after its initial launch, the Epic Games Store will finally receive an achievement system of its own, dubbed Epic Achievements. This new system will grant “a set of tools for developers to activate platform Achievements quickly and easily.” Players can start “earning Epic Achievements” and “collecting XP” when the system launches next week.

Upon launch, the achievement system will be compatible with several games, including Alan Wake Remastered, Hades, Rocket League, Zombie Army 4, Pillars of Eternity, and Kena. This system separates achievements into four tiers, each of which rewards a different amount of XP. Players can only obtain the highest of these tiers, the Platinum tier, when they accumulate 1,000 XP in any given game. Games that offer achievements will receive “a new Achievements detail page” that details “all Epic Achievements available for the game, showcases your progress towards each, and highlights Epic Achievements you’re close to unlocking.”

A standardized achievement system

This announcement may confuse some who have used the Epic Games Store for a while now, as certain games on the service already included achievements well before this announcement. But as the announcement clarified, individual developers had full control over those achievements, whereas this new achievement system encompasses the Epic Games Store service as a whole and is “more in line with achievement systems on other platforms.” The announcement reassured players that they will still have access to these “developer achievements.”

The new Epic Achievements system feels like a long-overdue addition, but it will still likely please dedicated Epic Games Store consumers who have wanted an achievement system akin to that of most other modern platforms for a while. The announcement encouraged players to “keep [their] eyes out for more updates,” as more features and rewards come later in the year.