Xbox just deleted an achievement, possibly for the first time ever

Xbox just deleted an unobtainable achievement, possibly for the first time ever.

When Microsoft introduced its achievements reward system for the Xbox 360, it changed how many would approach certain games. Sure, we’ve always aimed to finish a campaign, top those online leaderboards and unlock extra content by completing in-game milestones, but achievements no doubt brought an extra layer of satisfaction for many gamers.

When we first heard that achievement pop on the Xbox 360, that feeling of reward entices us to earn even more achievements which would, in turn, contribute towards our overall Gamerscore associated with our profile.

There are a number of ways that players could earn achievements, from finishing a story, defeating a certain number of enemies, or in the case of 2007’s The Simpsons Game, simply starting the game from the main menu screen. Some achievements even would test the most veteran of gamers in the likes of FromSoftware’s Soulsborne entries. However, some could argue that achievements/trophies are bad for gaming.

Xbox achievements proved to be so popular that Sony would implement its own reward system with trophies, as would Steam and Epic Games on its PC storefronts. To this day, it feels strange not hearing that achievement/trophy ping when we complete an in-game milestone. Yet, Nintendo has resisted the temptation to implement a version of its own similar reward system.

As reported by GamesRadar (via TrueAchievements), Xbox has removed an achievement which will no doubt infuriate passionate hunters in the video game community. The achievement in question is for the farming-sim RPG, Homestead Arcana and it’s the one called ‘You Can’t Be Too Prepared’.

This particular achievement required the player to craft at least one of every item in the game. Unfortunately, due to a glitch that made that task impossible, resulting in the achievement being unobtainable, it has now been removed from the game.

The achievement was worth 100 gamerscore and contributed to the game's 1,000 gamerscore total. If this removal resulted in players only being able to earn 900/1000, it would no doubt frustrate hunters. Thankfully, the 100 gamerscore once attached to that achievement, has been relocated to other achievements, so it's still possible to earn 1,000 gamerscore in Homestead Arcana. Thank the gaming gods!

Having achievements removed from Xbox games is a very rare occurrence and hopefully, it’s not something that will be happening again anytime soon. The best scenario in this instance, would be for that in-game glitch to be fixed so players could acquire the ‘You Can’t Be Too Prepared’ achievement.

At the very least, we know Microsoft may consider removing unobtainable achievements and distributing that precious gamerscore elsewhere. Will Microsoft now fix other unobtainable achievements related to glitches in other games? Only time will tell.