A look at the current state of Achievements on Xbox 360

We always thought we knew how Achievements worked. You play a game, you unlock an Achievement, and an awesome wave of pleasure washes over you. It's a debilitating addiction that has caused some of us to be an embarrassment to everyone we know. Really, nobody should have Cabela's Safari on their list of games played.

But, we digress. There's a method to this addictive madness, and Xbox360Achievements has the scoop. Apparently, games now have a ceiling of 1,750, as opposed to the established 1,250. On top of this, there's also a maximum number of Achievements set at 80; however, savvy readers will know that the one exception to this is The Orange Box, which has 99 different Achievements.

There are also stipulations per yearly quarter now, with a maximum of 250 and 10 new Achievements allowed via updates. Microsoft has these stipulations to stop games from releasing, then adding a bunch of achievements right away to reach the max of 1,750. This instead promotes smaller, more consistent updates for a game over time, or one big update longer down the road. Since the quarters stack, a developer or publisher can perform one big update a year later with all sorts of Achievements packed in.

It's important to note that this all comes from "a source" and not Microsoft itself, who could only offer us this comment: "we regularly re-evaluate the guidelines for our Achievement system to reflect the quality and depth of Game Add-ons on Xbox 360, and appropriately reward players for their accomplishments in this new content."