A Wider Net

According to Joystiq, there will now be sponsors attached to certain XBOX 360 achievements. An achievement is awarded to a gamer when they accomplish a specific task, such as beating a team, taking out enough bad guys, or winning a certain number of races. The “rewards” of earning achievements is typically limited solely to bragging rights - he who has the most achievements is the better (or at least, most committed) gamer.

Now sponsors are starting to claim naming rights for achievements. One example from the arcticle was the “Pontiac 4th Quarter Comeback” from an upcoming football game (see image below, from the Joystiq post). It’s nice name placement, but I think they’re still missing a really interesting opportunity.

Right now, as I mentioned, achievements are effectively worthless. Attaching a sponsor to it makes them worth money to the game publisher, possibly to Microsoft, and of course to the sponsor, but the gamer gets nothing from being assaulted by the ad. Why not provide more value to achievements and the user by turning that achievement into a true reward through the sponsor? So, instead of unlocking the “Pontiac 4th Quarter Comeback” achievement, you get money off a Pontiac? Unlock the “Warner Music Finger Twister” achievement on Guitar Hero 3 and get a free music download for your Zune?

They’re driving awareness through branding - which is as clever as it is annoying. I think it’s time to add customer value and drive them to the next step.