Sony Can Still Improve PlayStation’s Trophy System, And Here’s How
For some, trophies a completely meaningless achievement system, and for others, they're the primary reason to keep playing games on PlayStation systems. For those who do care about the badges of honor that are video game achievements, the PlayStation trophy system has provided a satisfying way for gamers to show all that they have accomplished over the years. With a simple bronze-gold system and the inclusion of the gorgeous Platinum trophies for reaching 100% completion in a game, PlayStation’s trophy system has some key advantages over other achievement offerings.
However, Sony can still improve upon the PlayStation platform’s iconic trophies even more. Those at PlayStation who oversee the platform’s trophy system have surely realized this, given the recent push for new trophy features such as progress tracking. The redesigned PlayStation trophy ranking system that arrived last month was a major rework that focused on making trophy unlocks more satisfying, and it is nice to see Sony trying to make trophies more enticing to those who are not already hooked. Sony should keep this hot streak of major trophy improvements going, though, and below are some big changes that could come to the system throughout the PS5’s life cycle.
Perhaps the biggest addition Sony could make to the trophy system is something that the Xbox achievement system already has: a leaderboard mechanic. The Gamerscore Leaderboard shows the top earners each month, with their Gamerscore earned in the month listed alongside their icon and Gamertag. Through this system, players can compete directly with their friends, fighting for the top spot and keeping a better eye on what achievements their friends are earning. The system encourages competition, and it could be just as good of a fit on PlayStation systems.
PlayStation is already adding trophy tracking to the PS5, a feature that Xbox users have had for some time already. With Sony pulling one great feature from its competitor already, they could very well pull another, even taking the chance to evolve the system further. One change that could be made is separate leaderboards based on different categories, such as a “rarest trophy unlocks this month” leaderboard or a “top platinum earners” list. A traditional “most trophies earned” leaderboard can be added as well, placing less of an emphasis on difficult trophies and a large focus on an overall number.
Beyond this, Sony can go a step beyond Microsoft’s system and add yearly leaderboards as well, giving friends the chance to phase off in an ongoing trophy war over several months. Winners of the yearly competition for their individual friends’ lists could receive exclusive trophy-themed rewards, and with PlayStation tying rewards to trophies for the PS5 already, this system could already be in place. Exclusive avatars and themes for the best trophy hunters each year could be a great incentive to have players engage in some friendly competition, with global and country leaderboards being added to make the hunt even more intense.
PlayStation players that have been unlocking trophies for years prior to the PS5 already have plenty of awards they would likely want to show off, but unfortunately, there is no real way of doing this on a PlayStation system. While there are numerous trophy websites designed around players showing off their proudest accomplishments, a proper trophy case does not exist on any PlayStation consoles. This could change with the PlayStation 5, however, and a proper on-console trophy case could prove to be an amazing addition to the current trophy system.
The addition could be as simple as a rework of the recently earned trophies portion of the PlayStation 3’s profile ID cards, with players instead inserting a half-dozen of their proudest trophies in the section. Time earned, rarity, and the trophy image can all be shown in the trophy case, highlighting the accomplishment for everyone to see whenever they go onto a player’s PSN profile. After all, what good is earning the difficult trophies of Demon’s Souls if they cannot be shown off proudly to the world.
The trophy case system could easily be more detailed, however, and it could show off many of the features seen on various trophy tracking websites. Players could have their rarest trophies listed alongside their 50th, 100th, or even 1000th platinum, with every milestone being reached shown within the trophy case. If Sony wanted to go overboard, a virtual trophy case could be added to all PlayStation 5 systems and fully customized by each player, with recreated versions of the unlocked trophy icons filling each row and easily being flicked through. While the PS5 recording trophy unlocks is all well and good, some version of this system should be added very soon.
While an on-system leaderboard and trophy case would be major improvements, they are at least accessible via external websites if players take the time to go looking. However, this final change is easily the most important, as it is one that has no workaround and is something every trophy hunter can get behind. There is nothing worse for a trophy hunter than unachievable trophies, whether it be through glitches or dead servers.
Going back to a game years later to achieve a Platinum, but not having the opportunity to do so due to unpopulated or shutdown servers, is as frustrating as it gets. While games like Watch Dogs Legion avoid this problem by not including multiplayer-related trophies in their lists, plenty of other games still incorporate trophies that require online play.
While the simple solution would be to eliminate online trophies altogether, this becomes an issue for titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War that have a huge multiplayer focus, or games like Overwatch and Apex Legends that are entirely based around online play. For better or worse, multiplayer trophies are not going anywhere, but there is one simple solution to making them a less frustrating issue: treating them as DLC trophies.
While this does not fix the problem for fully multiplayer games (perhaps unlocking the trophies for everyone once an online game’s life cycle comes to an end could work), it does make online trophies less troublesome when listed alongside singleplayer unlocks. This way, if a game’s servers become a barren wasteland, the platinum can still be acquired easily.
Speaking of DLC trophies, these can be improved upon by Sony as well. While it is completely welcome for developers to add new trophies like Spider-Man: Remastered, the trophies taking away a hard-earned 100% is incredibly frustrating. After all, earning a challenging platinum that took hours upon hours of work is rewarding, but an update a few months later that adds DLC and brings players down below 100% feels like a major slap in the face. The solution, while important, is surprisingly simple.
All Sony needs to do to make additional trophies fully rewarding is to have them add on to a percentage rather than detract. This way, if players do not feel like going back to earn the new trophies, they retain their 100% rating. If players are on board with more trophy unlocks, however, they climb up to 101% and beyond — showing just how dedicated they are to their craft.
With Sony already adding trophy rewards, tracking, and an improved rank setup, PlayStation 5’s version of trophies is the best the system has ever been. Trophies can still evolve further, however, through major quality-of-life additions like a trophy case and trophy leaderboard as well as a rework of DLC and multiplayer trophies. If Sony makes these additions and changes, the future of trophy hunting on the PlayStation 5 will become brighter than it already.
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