Trophies and achievements have become a staple of modern gaming. There’s an innate sense of satisfaction seeing that little icon pop up to show that you conquered your game and the fact that your trophies can be shown off to your friends just makes it that much more addictive. I personally have become more interested in trophy hunting, just recently platinuming Final Fantasy XV, and I have to admit that it plays a significant role in my gaming decisions. While trophy hunting obviously increases the lasting appeal of a game, as there is extra incentive to complete everything the game has to offer, another side effect has become evident.

I have been a fan of the Shantae series and have played every title, eagerly anticipating the latest release Half Genie Hero. The previously mentioned games in the series I happened to play on Nintendo consoles, 3DS and Wii U, specifically. I’ve always associated the series with Nintendo and for awhile felt that I was surely going to purchase the Wii U version of Half Genie Hero upon its release. However, as time went on and trophy hunting became more interesting to me, a shift occurred that led me to feel I would enjoy the PS4 version of the game better, as Nintendo does not have their own achievement system. The lack of achievement system purely influenced my decision for the platform I would use to play that game and at a time where Nintendo has had trouble swaying consumers to play third-party/indie games on their console rather than competitors, this line of thinking really hurts them.

So wait, if I just said Nintendo doesn’t have an achievement system, how can this post make any sense? Well all it took was an army of blue-haired swordsmen and waifus in the palm of my hand for me to see the incredible potential the Big N has.

Just recently, the mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes was released and if I thought the 3DS titles were addictive, then having that gameplay in my pocket wherever I go is downright dangerous. I could go on and on about how much I like the game but that’s not what’s important. Upon downloading the game, players are able to link with their My Nintendo account. As you complete chapters throughout the game’s story mode, you’ll notice that your account will not only keep track of it, but it will also allow you to redeem points for completing these goals, which can be put towards in-app purchases of useful items. This, in a very simple and underdeveloped way, is Nintendo’s achievement system in its infancy.

Where Playstation has “Trophies” and Xbox has “Achievements”, Nintendo calls their gaming benchmarks “Missions”, a term that is surprisingly not horrible for Nintendo. While the major way to earn points has come from Nintendo’s mobile games, My Nintendo accounts are not just useful for mobile. By combining the points I earned through Fire Emblem Heroes, Super Mario Run and Miitomo, I was able to put them towards discounts for various 3DS and Wii U titles, essentially converting missions into money.

Now here is where we deviate from “what-is” to “what-Could-Be”. Currently, despite being tied to an account, I cannot find a way to view friends’ missions or points. However, the major caveat for Nintendo to have success in this achievement system comes from going beyond mobile and moving into missions for console/handheld games. If the same principles can be applied, Nintendo could have a game-changer on their hands in terms of the way gamers view achievements. Imagine completing the mission of “Complete Pokedex” for the next Pokemon game or “Beat all time trial ghosts” for the next Mario Kart and not only having visible proof that you conquered those feats, but you are also rewarded for your devotion to Nintendo games through points that you can put towards buying other games.

As a business model, this could be a massive opportunity for Nintendo. While it may appear that Nintendo could miss out by having discounts so readily available, the influx of purchases will more than make up for this. A cycle will form of consumers buying cheaper games they wouldn’t ordinarily buy in order to reap the mission points from that game, in order to then put those points towards purchasing another game and so on and so forth. This gives indie developers and smaller studios massive appeal to create games for Switch as titles that may ordinarily be overlooked as not worth a purchase now have extra value attached to them. And if this is successful, you can bet that Sony and Xbox will take notice, resulting in some kind of reward system that converts all those Uncharted 4 Headshot trophies into discounts towards Naughty Dog’s next venture.

So to get technical, Nintendo doesn’t exactly have the best achievement system…yet. However, things appear to be falling into place for Nintendo to turn a whole new generation of gamers into completionists, and in the process, turn a profit too.

If you think this is a good/bad idea or just want to share your thoughts, please let me know with a comment.