Epic Games Store will introduce ‘Epic Achievements’ starting next week

Later this year, Epic Games Store will celebrate its third anniversary. The PC digital storefront has quickly grown its catalog in that short period, but gamers have often found it difficult to leave its rival Steam. One of the common reasons is the lack of an account-based achievements feature. That might change soon, though, as the “Fortnite” developer announces the imminent launch of Epic Achievements.

The Epic Achievements system was announced in a blog post on Monday. Epic Games said it would have four tiers that gamers can reach depending on the XP they collect as they play titles they bought or installed through the digital store.

PC gamers can earn the Bronze Achievement upon collecting 5 XP and will remain in this level until they surpass 45 XP. The second tier is Silver Achievement for Epic Games Store customers with 50 to 95 XP. Reaching the Gold Achievement will require 100 to 200 XP. Players can get to the Platinum Achievement — the highest tier — upon collecting 1,000 XP.

It is worth noting that the Epic Games Store already had an earlier version of an achievements system, but it was decentralized. In the announcement post, the company said that would be retained alongside the upcoming Epic Achievements.

“Those achievements are fully owned and operated by developers,” Epic Games said. “This new Epic Achievements system adds additional benefits for players and brings them more in line with achievement systems on other platforms.”

That also means developers will have the option to stay with the older achievements tool, which Epic now calls “developer achievements.” Game studios will not be required to integrate Epic Achievements in their titles. In the event the developers opt to participate in the new system, Epic says the progress players made in developer achievements will not be removed. “Progress carries over, and [players] will automatically earn account XP,” the company added.

The new Epic Achievements will go live at an unspecified date next week. But it will be available in a few games at first, including “Rocket League,” “Hades,” “Pillars of Eternity,” “Kena,” “Zombie Army 4,” and “Alan Wake Remastered.”

Photo by Vlad Gorshkov on Unsplash