Nintendo remains philosophically opposed to achievements. So what are they doing in the Zelda Notes app?
It’s hardly a surprise, but it was worth confirming: the Nintendo Switch 2 won’t have achievements. When Polygon asked Nintendo’s vice president of player and product experience Bill Trinen if Nintendo was about to change its ways and introduce the ubiquitous progress trackers, he returned a simple, one-syllable answer: “Nope.”
At this late stage — 20 years after Microsoft debuted its Gamerscore achievement system on Xbox 360 — it seems safe to infer that Nintendo is not just typically late to the party implementing this feature. It’s a conscientious objector. Nintendo has never stated its reasons for eschewing achievements, but it seems to be opposed to them on a fundamental, maybe even philosophical level.
Why? It’s true that Nintendo has always liked to do things differently, and prides itself on the originality of its designs. But the company is not above copying others’ systems when it suits its needs, or when it simply becomes unavoidable. Nintendo has held online multiplayer at arms’ length for decades, offering perfunctory and limited services, perhaps out of concern for child safety. But the online gaming market is now sufficiently unavoidable — and subscription revenues for Nintendo Switch Online sufficiently important — that as of the Switch 2, we have GameChat, which reinvents Discord and Zoom for a Nintendo audience, in a Nintendo way.
