Easy Achievements Boost Sales By...

Renegade · 10-07-2009, 07:28 PM

Up to 40,000 units!

Quote:

We knew that there was contingency of Xbox 360 owners who place a remarkable amount of importance on their largely unimportant Gamerscore -- however, a recent Official Xbox Magazine interview with Gearbox president Randy Pitchford has got us worried about our fellow man. According to Pitchford, developers who tweak their game's Achievements to make them a tad easier to obtain can boost sales of said game "by something like 10 and 40 thousand units."

Yes, Pitchford claims that there are 10 to 40 thousand people out there who purchase games based on their capacity to bolster their e-peen. That represents around $2.4 million being spent on making an inconsequential number slightly larger. Our faith in humanity wasn't just shaken by Pitchford's report -- it was absolutely obliterated. We're gonna go watch Rudy a few times until that faith is restored.

Pitchford: Easy Achievements boost sales by up to 40,000 units

Raven · 10-07-2009, 07:45 PM

People seriously consider paying all that cash just to get a game with easy gamerscore. That's just ROFL. Might as well just rent or buy one of those mod kits that lets you edit your gamerscore or some shit.

Yale · 10-07-2009, 07:49 PM

While I don't care about the gamerscore so much, it is a very small factor that plays in when I purchase an XBLA. Since I am slightly OCD, I don't like having any games with below 50G earned, so I do check the achievements before purchasing. However, re-playability and fun factor are MUCH more important to me.

I do agree that people who buy games just for gamerscore are really missing the point of the experience.

flipmode · 10-07-2009, 07:59 PM

Achievements are a big factor for me. I want to be able to feel as though I have some reward for playing the game and I don't mean bait for the good MP players

I will check most games before I buy them to see what the achievements are like but I don't go out and purposely buy a game that has easy achievements, I would rather rent it. That way if I just absolutely hate the game (a la Viking) then I can just send it back and I haven't lost anything

Lucent_Beam · 10-07-2009, 08:52 PM

I'd like to see the math behind this, honestly. Mainly because most people who are informed enough to find out if a game has easy achievements will also be renting their games, not buying them. Or, they will buy the game and immediately trade it in which means later someone else will probably buy the cheaper used copy over a new copy (no money for developer/publishers).