More Achievements = higher sales, better reviews, tastier muffins

This piece at IGN has an intriguing look at the world of Achievements from a sales perspective. It seems that games emphasizing various levels of accomplishment (and containing a higher number of varied accomplishments) tend to sell better at retail, are better reviewed by whoever it is that does that sort of thing, and generally are better liked by peers, classmates and that cute blonde girl who lives down the block.  To hear the article tell it:
"Consumers want their games to include both variety and abundance of Accomplishments," said Geoffrey Zatkin, COO of [Electronic Entertainment Design And Research]. "Our research shows that incentives such as Accomplishments impact sales choices such as which game title to buy and which platform to buy it on; they also extend the replayability of a title.

So why is this? While the article doesn’t attempt to conjecture, it has long been known that — even […]

Original post by mrdestructoid@gmail.com (Destructoid.com) and software by Elliott Back