A rumor in Game Informer (full text from GI after the break) states that Gamerscores and achievements will be transferable to Microsoft's next console. As far a rumors go, this is one many Xbox 360 owners might pray Microsoft wouldn't prevent from becoming a reality.

Achievements and Gamerscores are two features of the Xbox 360 that have developed a strong following, particularly among "ch33vo-holics." We can already imagine the internet hissy-fit temper-tantrum freak out we'll see if the Xbox faithful can't transfer their data. Although the next console is still years away, it would be unfortunate to envision Microsoft not allowing gamers to transfer their data effortlessly to the next system.

[Via X3F]

For the thorough achievement hunter, there are an elite series of Gamerscore garnering goals that the softcore gamer is not likely to possess, such as Dead Rising's Zombie Genocider achievement, or, well, most of the achievements from Chromehounds. One stands out above the rest, though, requiring a great deal of time and skill to earn -- the "Seriously" achievement from Gears of War. Getting 10,000 kills in ranked multiplayer earns you 50 Gamerpoints, and hopefully, a concerned intervention from a few of your closest loved ones.

Bizarre Creations' latest project The Club gives a hearty nod towards the life-consuming achievement with one of their own -- the cleverly titled "No, Seriously" requires you to kill 10,001 opponents in ranked online matches. Oh, we see what you did there. We'll have to wait until Feb. 19 to see if the game is good enough to merit that kind of time investment, and if Bizarre ripped anything else off of Gears -- such as a steroid-infused protagonist that speaks with the eloquence of Tourette's suffering sailor.

We're sure you all have fond memories of the Old Spice Experience Challenge, which tasked gamers with earning enough gamerscore points to qualify for Fusion Frenzy 2, which was comparable to sprinting to the top of a steep hill to pick up your complimentary knife wound. Now, the challenge has returned, and while you're still getting prizes for points, it's with a very different structure.

This time, you're not just competing with yourself, you're competing with your friends, and the more of them you can get in on a competition, the better prizes will be up for grabs. You'll fight against all of them for a set period of time and the top earner gets the goods, which range from a $20 Best Buy gift card to an Xbox 360 HD DVD Player. Like last time though, prizes are limited, so you'll probably want to get your friends together soon if you want a showdown for the best swag.

The German version of GamePro (via NeoGAF) has published its review of Devil May Cry 4 and revealed some interesting features for the PlayStation 3 - namely, achievements. Similar to the Xbox Live counterpart, you'll be able to perform certain actions and earn recognition, which can then be seen by your friends.

From what we gather, this is only for DMC4, however, and not a console-wide feature, so don't expect to start bragging about your PSN gamerscore anytime soon. The idea of PS3 achievements, rumored once to be called entitlements, were denied by Sony leading up to the console's launch.

The review also confirmed Sixaxis functionality in the form of tilting to adjust the camera, and noted a 5GB required installation before you can play the game. The 1UP podcast this week also confirmed this, saying it took 25 minutes to complete the installation process, so don't expect to play the game as soon as you get home from the store.

[Update: Upgraded emphasis on 5GB installation]

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Gamerpoint addiction is a serious problem, people. Did you know that 1.2 million Americans buy awful games every day, just to harvest the sweet gamerpoint nectar that lies within? That's close to 60 million dollars a day that could be donated to charity, or, at the very least, spent on good games. We've got good news and bad news for these people. The bad news? You're going to be buying another bad game soon. The good news? You'll only need to play it for two minutes.

Apparently, the creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Burning Earth (Avatar: The Legend of Aang - The Burning Earth for our European readers) thought it would be much, much harder to rack up a 50 hit combo than it actually was. We wonder when someone will start up a Gamerpoint Regulation Council that will make the distribution of points between games like Avatar and games like Guitar Hero III a tad more uniform.

[Thanks, jstroh]

C'mon, you can tell us. You're an addict, aren't you? You've got a 40K gamerscore and you simply can't justify any gaming time if, well ... you aren't being compensated for it. Bad news then, junkie. The recently announced Xbox Originals (downloadable versions of original Xbox games) won't have achievements. It all makes sense if you think about it: these are unaltered disc images. If they didn't see fit to go in and remove things like demos or trailers that could actually crash your 360 if you select them, it stands to reason they weren't going to add achievements.

Now, the good news. Your gamertag won't be permanently sullied with achievement-related proof that you were playing Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space. Seriously, what's wrong with you?

[Via X3F]

You may think that the guys handing consumer relations for Microsoft have it easy (discounting, of course, the occasional bout of scarlet unpleasantness). But we're not sure we could handle the kind of scrutiny they put their new employees under. Take this poor sap who was allowed to work from his home ... as long as he'd agree to a portal in his living room.

Selfish as we are, we're less concerned about Nelson Rodriguez's plight than we are about the implications. Think about it for just a moment: Microsoft in bed with Aperture Science? Can that really be good news for anyone?

A new study by Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) suggests that the Xbox 360 achievement system (here called "accomplishments" for some reason) has an effect on the title's success. According to the press release, EEDAR found a "strong connection between a game title's diversity of Accomplishment types with that game's profitability -- pointing to the idea that the more diverse the Accomplishments available to the user, the more enjoyable the game, higher review scores, more units sold."

We're hesitant to conclude that the number of achievements is a causality for gamer enjoyment, although we know of a few people who swear by their gamerscore (and a handful of games whose sales, but not necessarily reviews, were greatly increased because of their achievements). We wonder if the correlation is instead a sign that developers who spend more time ensuring the quality of their games also extend that hard-work towards the achievements, as well. If Valve's The Orange Box sells a bajillion copies, it's not necessarily because it has 99 ways to up your gamerscore.

New Gears of War achievements are coming June 14 at 2:00 a.m. GMT, which for those in the US means tonight at 10:00 p.m. EDT. A newsbrief on the GoW page outlines the eight new achievements for the Annex gametype and the Hidden Fronts multiplayer map pack.

These achievements are not for those looking for a quick way to upgrade their gamerscore, however, and are primarily for those who want to show off that they've logged in hundreds of hours of game time. Achievements are listed after the break.

Also included in the download is a patch that fixes a number of bugs in the game and multiplayer. The Annex gametype is currently available for free. The Hidden Fronts map pack is 800 MS points now but will go free September 3.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy; thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Coming on strong this week is 2P Start, whose 1337 Gamerscore nets them the top honors as this week's best game-related webcomic.

Coming in second place is Digital Unrest, while the third place trophy has been divided in half between Penny Arcade and VG Cats. Thanks to everyone who voted, and be sure to let us know of any game-related webcomics you stumble upon this week!

Ubisoft's TMNT title learned a couple things from Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie, their video game adaptation from last year. First, long names are best left as acronyms (PJKK: TOGotM). Second, spice up a less-than-stellar licensed game with 1000 additional reasons to buy it regardless. Yup, it looks like TMNT is poised to take away the easiest 1000 Xbox 360 achievement points crown from the previous king, err, King Kong.

Let's see what the critics have to say about the game's easy points:

• IGN says "the new king of easy Achievement Points has arrived."
• GameSpot offers, "There are also achievements to consider, but they also happen to be incredibly easy to acquire, with many of them relegated to points for beating levels and pulling off individual special abilities. Even still, the better graphics and achievements ultimately make the 360 version the best by default."
• Finally, Team Xbox says, "If there's one good thing about TMNT, it's the fact that the game steals the title of 'Easiest 1000 Achievement Points' from Ubisoft's own King Kong. You'll probably be able to get all 1000 in less than 4 hours."

We wonder if achievement points will really be a quantifiable factor in picking which console to buy that multiplatformer on.

According to Microsoft's John Porcaro, the population of Xbox Live has hit the six million mark. However, being a member of Xbox Live could mean anything from paying for a Gold account to plugging an ethernet cord into your console and giving yourself a Silver account to download demos. At E3 last year, Microsoft was looking to hit the six million mark in June 2007, thus their exuberant remark that they beat their target by four months.

Also included on the announcement is a momentum list, for those who love statistical trivia. (Did you know that there are 2 million messages sent over Xbox Live every day?) What we don't see in the momentum list, however, is the number of Gold members and the retention rate of a Gold account. We do know, however, that the average XBL Gold member has 22 friends. Sure, six million is an accomplishment, but we want to know how many premium accounts they're selling. That will be the real test.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Just 60 of 'em. Yep, $60 for parts and a long day's worth of labor birthed the "xBot," a monstrous lil' bugger that latches onto the Xbox 360 controller and presses 'Start' and 'B' like, well, like a machine. Car mechanic David Harr assembled the xBot to unlock a pair of Perfect Dark Zero Achievements, which require playing 1,000 (offline) multiplayer matches in both Deathmatch and DarkOps modes -- each worth 30 points. Since matches don't need to be completed to register as "played," Harr calculated that it would take him roughly 40 hours to start, exit, and restart enough matches to unlock the Achievements; he would use just ten to assemble his xBot. Muahahahah!

While some whine that Harr's 'workaround' is unethical, the Seattle mechanic argues, "This is not playing online on Xbox Live -- it is not playing against other people ... This is a one trick pony, getting you just 60 points. It's not stepping on anyone's toes." We say, let him have his 60 points.

The Xbox Rewards program remains deadlocked today, following yesterday's launch, which apparently drew more prospective registrants than anticipated. If you've yet to register -- perhaps planning to leisurely earn your 'rewards' during the allotted month -- you've likely already missed out. 'Cause guess what? All those rewards are limited to finite numbers; paltry numbers when compared to Xbox Live's user base.

This isn't an 'Old Spice Challenge,' it's a Competition -- and no doubt there are enough registered players teens already racing to gobble up those prizes. If you're lucky, you might score (possibly another) copy of Contra, since 70,000 download codes will be handed out. But even the '100 Microsoft Points' prize (limited to 6,000 winners) could be gone by week's end. Bah, who wanted Fusion Frenzy 2 anyway?

Hint: Try this link.

It looks like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion will be the first to take advantage of Microsoft's recently-amended Achievement points policy and push past that 1000-point gate of old. Speaking to Gaming Bits, Oblivion developer Bethesda has confirmed that the upcoming expansion Shivering Isles will have 250 Gamerscore points, divided amongst 10 achievements, to unlock.

According to the new Achievement point policy, up to 250 points can be added to a disc-based Xbox 360 title via premium downloadable content, which means Oblivion has maxed out its Gamerscore potential.

Shivering Isles is set for release via Xbox Live this Spring; it will also be available for PC and PS3. No word on if it will be released before Microsoft's Xbox Rewards contest ending April 12, so plan on augmenting your Gamerscore elsewhere.