Epic Games Store is getting achievements next week, so what’s missing?

Almost three years after its debut on Windows PCs, the Epic Games Store will soon finally be supporting a feature that has become common on other gaming platforms: Achievements.

The system, as announced on Monday, will go live “next week” and will be built around a mix of “trophies” and “experience points”, thus resembling both the designs of the Xbox and PlayStation families. . Complete an objective while playing a game, and a pop-up will announce everything you’ve completed, along with a trophy and a certain amount of experience points. Each list of EGS achievements will add up to 1000 experience points, with smaller achievements (45 points or less) labeled “bronze” and larger numbers of points described as “silver”, “gold” and “platinum”. “.

Epic remains coy on how these points might impact the way the service works: “Keep an eye out for any updates you’ve been waiting for as we drop new social features and rewards for players later this year. “, we read. Does this mean that achievement points could function as a currency in one way or another, like Ubisoft Connect? Epic doesn’t say it.

Achievements will not be mandatory for existing or future EGS games, although if they are included, Epic has a list of rules for participating developers. Regardless of the number of achievements in a game, they must total up to 1000 points, no more, no less, and once a multitude of achievements are uploaded, they cannot be edited. . In an email to Ars Technica, an Epic representative confirmed that the store will support adding more achievements to DLC packages and free “live service” content dumps, although the exact operation does not work. has yet to be announced.

The rollout had technically started earlier this year as a confusing beta feature known as “developer achievements”. In a few rare games currently on EGS, these appear in a pop-up box whenever players complete certain objectives, only to disappear into the ether shortly after, not found on player profiles. Next week’s update includes detailed achievement menus, visible in either the “library” or “store” tabs of the EGS client, and developers can choose to modify these existing developer achievements to work with the EGS client. new system or completely ignore the public update.

Don’t hold our breath on “user reviews”

Monday’s announcement also teases at least one major update for the EGS client that was introduced back in July: customizable profiles. An Epic rep tells Ars it won’t be live in next week’s update, despite the announcement page including a visual hint of her appearance, complete with achievement progress and customizable profile icons. .

The EGS roadmap is a stern reminder of how far Epic’s PC storefront is in terms of functionality compared to its competitors. So far, it lists a number of highly requested features including:

• Buy games for other people, then send them as digital “gifts”
• A “basket” that allows buyers to pay for several games in a single transaction
• A download interface that includes manual commands to prioritize particular software
• User reviews
• Native support for more currencies and payment methods worldwide

The last two on this list have been moved as early as 2019 into the nebulous “future development” level of EGS, which clarifies how much of a development priority these two are for Epic.

Since EGS rolled out in late 2018, with an aggressive pricing structure for all developers – and additional license-based incentives for developers who favor Unreal Engine – Steam, Valve’s popular storefront, has fought back largely with its own functionality, instead of giving up. its default 30% reduction in digital game sales. (To be fair, public data suggests that Steam doesn’t quite take that total percentage.) Arguably the biggest has been Steam Play Together, which can turn most “couch co-op” games into a lobby. line with one click. .

EGS has yet to move forward with storefront options that go beyond what Steam offers, with its roadmap mimicking what players have become accustomed to in other storefronts, including support for save. in cloud and functional offline modes.