Achievements are changing on the new Xbox One. They might be changing even more than we realise though, if a Microsoft patent application for TV achievements ever actually comes to fruition. Yes, according to a report on GI.biz, last November Microsoft applied for a patent aimed at giving you achievements for watching TV.
“Television viewing tends to be a passive experience for a viewer, without many opportunities for the viewer to engage or have interactive experiences with the presented content,” the application’s description reads. “To increase interactive viewing and encourage a user to watch one or more particular items of video content, awards and achievements may be tied to those items of video content.”
That last sentence is the kicker, Microsoft obviously hoping to use achievements as a carrot, with sponsored content the stick.
Some other rewards beyond just a score are mentioned, such as “new clothes and props for an avatar, virtual money for a game, or even physical rewards.”
Comments
51 responses to “Microsoft Thinking About Giving You Achievements For Watching TV”
Hey, there should be some reward for sitting through half the crap on tv.
Sweet Zombie Jesus….
Ahoy-hoy?
Why have you let this happen?
Sorry, I was busy watching that documentary, Walking Dead.
“The labotomy” achievement: For sitting through 6 hours straight of reality TV (no cheating, the Kinect is watching…)
i would sooner have a dog chew on my nutsack for six hours
There’s an achievement for that too. Thanks Kinect!
“This is a dog that you will really care about”
Nope.
Dear god – I can see it now;
I’ve got a “Tank-Ass” achievement.
Oh yea? – I’ve got a “You have no life” & “You have actually become Stoopider for watching” achievement….mines better!
“You just sat through the whole twilight series… we see you’re male… via kinect 2… you just got the ‘Hand back your penis please you’ll NEVER need it again achievement!’”
This is so ironic…. And also, this will be abused to force ratings unto crap television programs, increasing the odds of additional seasons of crap programs being produced. This will be a terrible cancerous cycle.
Common sense really needs to prevail here.
Go away Microsoft, please?
XBone, go home
Yet another nail in the coffin for the XBone. At this rate the weight of the metal will create a singularity and wipe us all out.
It’s almost as if the X-Bone (we still calling it that?) news gets more ridiculous each day.
XBone
I personally call it a XBox One(der how they are going to sell that rubbish) but it’s a bit long to catch on.
But seriously, there is no ‘as if’ about it. The news is getting worse by the day. In a couple more does, you’ll have to be on crack first to make sense of it.
I like X1, it’s quite simple.
sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
stupid
Great. Banality just got more banal. Double banal! Banal. I just like saying banal.
It seems Micro$oft are not content with the many reasons the’ve given us to not buy an Xbone. They feel they have to give us a new reason almost every day.
How long until they start putting this into games, too?
“Want to level up faster? Hold up a bag of Doritos so Kinect can see it and you’ll be awarded 1,000XP!”
Wow, you know that may actually be a thing. Don’t let them hear you or see this.
Don’t give them any more ideas. It seems like they are grasping at straws as it is. MS is dead to me this gen.
I’m confused by the people on this site (and others too).
People were complaining the Xbox One isn’t about gaming. Gamification is real, and people watch TV – why is there a problem with the crossover?
This is a patent – not a feature (yet, if at all). Microsoft would be silly to not patent a novel idea.
Example Cheevo: Watch 3 Pilots and provide Social Feedback: 50GS
I’m not sure who this hurts – or why someone would complain about something so trivial.
Not a bad idea but here’s the Australian equivalent achievement example:
Couldn’t watch 3 pilots or provide social feedback – content not available: -50GS
Better yet, this achievement is available as soon as you turn on the console for the first time. As well as all of the other “no content” related achievements.
Does Microsoft have the guts to go in to bat for us Aussies and the lack of methods to legitimately obtain digital content (at a reasonable price)?
I think it’s more like… if someone really pisses you off, pretty much everything they do or say afterwards that is congruous with that behaviour ALSO pisses you off, to the point that only outright contrition or behaviour shift can salvage their reputation with you.
Like if a friend of a friend makes a SERIOUSLY off-colour joke in entirely the wrong company and they know it was in poor taste and a seriously dick move, but they don’t apologise and instead try to dig up (stupid!) by making other, more acceptable jokes, hoping everyone will laugh off the insult and move along.
This particular instance? It’s like if there was some kid in class who basically made that kind of gaffe his entire life and now he’s desperately trying things to be cool without realizing that he’s continuing to taint everything that had potential with his unsettling worldview (in this case, corporate opportunism) which got everyone off-side in the first place.
You left out the individual who doesn’t care either way but enjoys the negative pile-on and hops on the band wagon, clicking on every story about the subject to throw a jab just for kicks.
I think the example is more:
Watch 3 pilot episodes you had no interest in but want the achievement for so we can pocket millions of dollars from sponsors – 50 (meaningless) GS.
Having been the lucky recipient of FIFA 2012 achievements when someone hacked my account, I have no desire for the next hacker to shame my account even further with achievements such as “watched 10 episodes of Big Brother in a 5 hour period”. The FIFA achievements are shameful enough…
Hey me too (it’s literally an achievement for buying DLC)
Just….. just stop, Microsoft. For the love of god, stop.
As if kids needed any more reasons to sit on their asses and do nothing.
Oh look, it’s the Xbone’s first new game!
Can’t see how a feature like this could be considered bad, really. People who care will use them, and people who don’t care won’t. It’s not like achievements ever mattered on consoles in the first place.
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: “Hail Dew The Chief”- Watch Halo™: The Animated Series and Do The Dew™ with your flavorite Mountain Dew® beverage and tasty Doritos® corn chips
If you fast forward through a show, does it still count? Will Kinect penalise me for toilet breaks?
No, but it will watch you pee.
Only for Americans, no doubt.
TVBox One – Build by Americans, for Americans. ; )
*Sat through every commercial break in a five hour sitting* 50GS
Rewarding u for being lazy lol
How is this not a joke? I don’t even know anymore…
Brilliant, and terrible.
On one hand using the XBone to watch TV means M$ can track how many people are watching which shows and sell the ratings information, with more accuracy than a Neilson box… and the people will PAY for it as a feature!!!
The they can give achievements for watching certain shows and show the direct impact on the shows viewership from the data they aquire, and can get TV companies to pay big money for an achievement for their show.
M$ will almost certainly do this, from a business plan it is the perfect win – win (- win)… Customer buys XBone (WIN), customer and household watch TV and kinnect watches them getting viewership data for M$ to sell (WIN), companies give microsoft a payout to create an acheivement and increase their ratings (WIN).
And If your wandering why the kinect watching you watch TV is such a big thing, if the kinect is good enought to judge sex, and approximate age… well instant viewership details… The plus side (I guess) is that this would mean ads in the show would be more likely to target the actual viewers.
You’re a fat lazy piece of shit – 100GS
“Sat in front of the TV for a total of ALL THE HOURS OF THE DAY!”
Microsoft should really pull there head out of certain places.
Yeah some of you might not be far from the truth when saying this Cyclops of an XBONEi will spy on you and know what you should be watching or do to get reward and stuff. everyone is quite concern having a camera always on looking inside your home at all time. that are some serious privacy concern and if you read between the line its pretty clear that this function will be on to gather data and send it back to Microsoft.
Here is an article from EuroGamer asking question to Microsoft’s Phil Harrison regarding this topic:
Eurogamer: Yep, the stuff on the magic of algorithm and data collection and so on – how are you dealing with people’s privacy concerns about that? I mean, presumably you’re using anonymous data to improve Kinect over time?
“We aren’t using Kinect to snoop on anybody at all.”
Phil Harrison: Yep. Microsoft has very, very good policies around privacy. We’re a leader in the world of privacy, I think you’ll find. We take it very seriously. We aren’t using Kinect to snoop on anybody at all. We listen for the word ‘Xbox on’ and then switch on the machine, but we don’t transmit personal data in any way, shape or form that could be personally identifiable to you, unless you explicitly opt into that.
note the last line: “Unless you explicitly opt for that”
Basically meaning that will be an option in tiny character somewhere (surely when you boot the unit for the very first time or in somewhere in the Microsoft agreement) that you may not be even aloud to skip or deny and there you have it! Microsoft will be legally playing Big brother and watch you in underpants if they so wish. you can even pushing it thinking that the kinect is so advance that it could recognized the brand you are buying when sitting in front of the TV with bag of crisps or pizza or drink or all of them and then later re sell this data for profit purposes. call me paranoid but that might well just be true.
Microsoft has traditionally been very good about ensuring the default behaviour of software is to not share information. Run an installer for many Microsoft applications and the ‘send anonymous feedback’ option is always disabled. Ditto for anonymous usage statistics embedded in applications and so on, the default is always off. When he says ‘explicitly opt in’, he appears to be referring to standard Microsoft practice – you have to explicitly tick a box that says ‘share my data’, otherwise it won’t.
Forget the fear-mongering that’s been going on the past few days, there’s no evidence yet to suggest Microsoft will be forcing anything on anyone. The product has only just barely been announced, better to wait until closer to launch to see exactly how it’s handled by the console’s interface before getting worked up over what may well be nothing.
..wow just wow..Welcome to the future where u get achievements just by watching TV..I cooked eggs today do I get any rewards other than its a deliciously cooked eggs??..no doubt to keep watching that Halo TV series planned for XBoxOne..
OH, THANK YOU, REDMOND!
You truly are the answer to my prayers! See, whenever I used to watch TV, I was forced to use my own intelligence, experience, knowledge, and emotions to engage with the material and draw my own conclusions from it! I had to interpret it myself!
At first, I thought this was fun. I thought this was the point of TV. I thought an artist, reaching out to the audience via their chosen medium, and having that audience engage with that piece.
Silly me. I mean, what do I know? Clearly my opinion of what I choose to watch is inferior to someone else’s. The arts and entertainment aren’t about opinions, or personal interpretations, or emotional engagement. They’re about making sure you’re watching TV, or playing a game, or doing whatever with whatever, correctly.
It’ll be good to know that next time when I, say, see a cop shoot somebody, I won’t have to make a judgment as to whether or not they’re bad or good – I’ll just wait for the little box to pop up and say “Achievement unlocked: BOOM! HEADSHOT! Discover Lt. Randall is evil.”