The Xbox 360 game console introduced the world to Xbox Live Achievements when Microsoft launched the console in 2005. The upcoming Xbox One will extend that achievement system with an all new sub categories called challenges.
In a new post on the Major Nelson website, Cierra McDonald, Microsoft's Program Manager for the Xbox Live Achievements service, reveals that in addition to the traditional achievements, Xbox One challenges will be time based. In other words, they will only be active for a certain period of time before the chance to unlock them goes away, while the traditional achievements can be unlocked in games at any time.
Challenges can also be set up by game developers to cross over into multiple games, unlike regular achievements, and challenges can be unlocked by a group of gamers. For example, a weekend challenge to kill a certain number of enemies in one weekend can involve all of the people who play a particular game.
The biggest difference between challenges and achievements is that unlocking challenges won't increase a person's Xbox Live Gamerscore. McDonald states:
We want everyone to have the same shot at increasing their Gamerscore to its highest potential. Since challenges are intentionally temporary (an opportunity) and achievements never expire (a promise), only achievements may offer Gamerscore as a reward.
The new achievement system is also cloud-based on the Xbox One, which means that they will not require game developers to offer DLC content to add achievements to their games.
Source: Major Nelson | Image via Microsoft
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