The Changing Achievement Landscape

I will preface this article with full disclosure: I am, and have been, an avid Xbox achievement hunter since September 2012. That’s over 13 years spent watching the achievement ecosystem evolve. From the Xbox 360 era where arcade games were worth 200–400 Gamerscore, to the Xbox One era where every title launched with 1,000 Gamerscore.

Achievement hunting on Xbox and trophy hunting on PlayStation has always been a niche space. PlayStation’s store has long been flooded with easy, copy-paste platinum trophy games—titles where you jump a few times, clear a trivial level, and walk away with a shiny new platinum.

The Rise of 5,000 Gamerscore Games

We are now seeing a flood of easy achievement titles hitting the Xbox marketplace, every one of them eventually reaching 5,000 Gamerscore. Long gone are the days of 1,000 GS AAA releases and 400 GS arcade titles. When the Xbox One arrived, every game launched with 1,000 GS, and indie titles followed suit.

Today, we’re at the apex of id@Xbox-enabled 5,000 Gamerscore titles, largely from small publishers who directly target the achievement hunter market through regular title updates.

These updates push short games to their 5,000 Gamerscore cap, often without adding meaningful content or replay value.

How Title Updates Became a Business Model

This trend really exploded at the tail end of 2020 when publisher Xitilon figured out they could release easy title updates on their backlog to increase the Gamerscore of each game for achievement hunters after receiving a suggestion from YouTube achievement guides maker Cheevo Guides: Publisher Xitilon says at least nine of its games will receive 1,000G updates next month. After that, publishers piled in, rapidly releasing 5K games aimed at the achievement community:

Xitilon, eastasiasoft, Head Bear Games, Yume Game Studio, Afil Games, Sweet Bread Games, PedroFStudio, Desert Water Games, GameDi Studio, Synnergy Circle Games, DERIK DF, Phoenix Reborn Games, Fa Games, Old School Vibes, trezegames, Magnific Studios, Flying Islands Team, Jolly Lobster Interactive, Lucky Raccoon Games, JM Neto Game Dev, Silen Games, Xeneder Team, My Night Sun Games, 2dragontails, DillyFrameGames…

This list continues to grow at a rapid pace.

One publisher, DCF Studios, even broke Microsoft’s own Gamerscore rules by releasing an additional title update that pushed the game Cruz Brothers to 6,000 Gamerscore.

Of these updates, very few actually add meaningful new content. Most consist of replaying old levels, repeating an action X number of times, or simply booting the game.

Then vs. Now: How the Road to 1,000,000 GS Has Changed

To put the evolution in perspective: when Stallion83 became the first Xbox player to reach 1,000,000 Gamerscore, it was considered a monumental achievement — one that required years of sustained play, planning, and sourcing games during a time when achievement hunting was significantly more limited and labour-intensive. His journey is chronicled in the feature “The Man with a Million Gamerscore: An Interview with Stallion83,” which captures both the scale of the effort and the significance of the milestone within the Xbox community.

By contrast, the landscape has changed so dramatically that modern players can accelerate progress at a pace that would have been inconceivable a decade ago. In 2023, achievement hunter Martel18 (AKA “BabyGamersSuck”) attempted a public 1,000,000 Gamerscore speed-run, as documented in the article “Meet the Xbox player whose 1,000,000G speedrun hit 25% in just one day.” Within just six days, they had unlocked 3,766 achievements worth 387,135 GS. This is roughly one quarter of the 1,000,000 goal. According to Reddit, the player ultimately reached the milestone in just over three months, a stark contrast to the multi-year grind undertaken by Stallion83.

Fast forward to July 2025, when achievement hunter Dwaggienite shattered the previous fastest record by earning 1,000,000 Gamerscore in under 100 hours of gameplay, as documented in Charity Marathon Results. This feat was completed during a livestream charity marathon between July 5–15, 2025, raising £1,160.77 for Child Autism UK in the process. This record has redefined what is physically achievable within the modern ecosystem.

The comparison illustrates a radical shift in what Gamerscore represents. What was once a multi-year, community-defining accomplishment has, through the proliferation of easy-achievement games, title updates, and high-value releases, become a milestone that can be reached in a single quarter, or even a matter of days, by players who leverage the modern marketplace.

Xbox’s Response

To its credit, Xbox appears to recognize the problems created by the rapid rise of easy-achievement games. In 2023, Microsoft updated its certification requirements to limit titles that award large amounts of Gamerscore with minimal effort or minimal gameplay interaction. More recently, in August 2025, Microsoft introduced a change intended to curb marketplace clutter by restricting how developers could bundle multiple versions of their games. Previously, publishers could release each triple-stack as its own bundle; under the new system, they are encouraged to consolidate releases.

In practice, however, this change has had unintended consequences. Rather than reducing clutter, some publishers now release larger bundles containing multiple titles at once, resulting in the marketplace being even more flooded than before. Microsoft’s attempt to crack down on bundle spamming may have simply shifted developer behaviour rather than resolving the underlying issue.

More broadly, enforcement of the new achievement rules does not appear to be fully effective. It’s clear that many low-effort, high-value titles continue to pass certification,  suggesting that, despite policy changes, many of the games these reforms were intended to prevent are still reaching the marketplace. Ultimately, policy intention has not matched implementation, and the achievement economy continues to expand largely unchecked.

Enter Afil Games: High Output, High Controversy

In this changing environment, a new publisher has emerged as one of the most aggressive players in the market. Afil Games is currently releasing approximately six titles per month, each distributed across three platforms—Xbox One, Xbox Series, and Windows—in a practice commonly referred to as “triple stacking.” Every release also arrives with 2,000 Gamerscore at launch, effectively bundling the game and its first title update into a single purchase.

This rapid pace of publishing has raised questions within the achievement hunting community. With no meaningful differences between platform versions, keeping up with Afil’s monthly output can cost around $90 USD while delivering roughly 36,000 Gamerscore. Notably, the Xbox Series releases offer no enhancements over their Xbox One counterparts, even though they are sold as separate products.

The economic incentives are clear, but the methods behind this accelerated production cycle point to broader industry concerns, particularly around labour conditions, which is unfortunately nothing new in the video game industry.

Afil Games Labour Practices and Production Pressure

According to reporting by former affiliate content creator “Dwaggienite”, Afil’s development pace is supported by low-wage labour and high workload expectations. The company reportedly employs fewer than 30 people, all working remotely in Brazil, with company ownership based in Portugal and no physical headquarters. Workers are said to earn roughly Brazil’s minimum wage, about R$1500 per month, or $275 USD, without benefits, while managing multiple overlapping projects under tight deadlines.

Employee reviews on the Brazilian Glassdoor website also criticize the company’s compensation, limited support, and lack of professional development. While none of these issues are unique within the global gaming sector, they contextualize Afil’s ability to produce games at a volume that few other publishers can match.

Game Cloning: A Systemic Pattern, Not an Isolated Incident

Criticism surrounding Afil Games intensified only recently, following an independent investigation by former affiliate content creator Dwaggienite, who released two YouTube videos just a month ago documenting extensive cloning practices across the publisher’s catalogue. In these videos, which publicly exposed the issue for the first time, Dwaggienite presents side-by-side gameplay footage and level comparisons to demonstrate that Afil Games has repeatedly recycled full level layouts, puzzle solutions, and structural design, altering only cosmetic assets in each iteration.

The videos identify a pattern of direct cloning across multiple releases. For instance, Sokorobot was repackaged as Cloud to Gold, while SokoMonster evolved into SokoMine and later Hula Hula Wee, retaining identical level architecture, including a matching level 19. The same structural reuse is highlighted in pairings such as SokoCrab and Stellar Docks, Aquarun and Penguin Flight: Beyond the Clouds, and Pirate Trails and Bee Flowers: Save the Garden. Further examples flagged in the videos include Legends Aligned reworked as Fit and Fry: Organized Chef, and Dragon Snack reimagined as Pirate Trails: Tentacles and Treasures.

As the videos make clear, the only substantive difference between these titles is their visual assets, while underlying gameplay systems remain unchanged. After attempting to raise these findings directly with CEO Antonio Filipe, the creator was removed from the company’s Discord community and dropped from its affiliate program, an action that forms part of the controversy documented in the investigation.

id@Xbox

Despite the concerns raised, id@Xbox has continued to feature Afil Games on its social media channels, promoting new titles without publicly addressing allegations of cloning or exploitative publishing practices. Requests for clarification sent to id@Xbox regarding its policy on cloned games entering the marketplace have unfortunately gone unanswered.

Similarly, Afil Games did not respond to inquiries seeking comment on the controversy or whether the company plans to alter its development approach going forward.

This lack of response from both the publisher and the platform overseeing distribution highlights a larger industry challenge: the absence of clear enforcement mechanisms or ethical guidelines within digital storefront ecosystems that increasingly rely on rapid, low-cost content pipelines.

A Complex Marketplace

These dynamics illustrate a broader shift within the Xbox achievement ecosystem. On one hand, id@Xbox has been successful in opening doors for small publishers and hobbyist developers, enabling a diverse range of titles to reach players. On the other, the proliferation of cloned, triple-stacked, or minimally updated releases risks eroding consumer trust and have diminshed the perceived value of Gamerscore itself.

There has been at least one measurable outcome from the public scrutiny: according to Dwaggienite, Afil Games implemented a 30% pay increase for workers following coverage of the controversy. Whether this reflects a meaningful shift in company practice or a reactive measure remains unclear.

What Comes Next for Achievement Hunting?

The debate surrounding Afil Games highlights a deeper tension at the heart of achievement hunting today. Some players fully embrace the flood of easy 5,000 Gamerscore triple stacks, while others view it as a degradation of what the hobby once represented. The community is increasingly divided: to stay competitive on the leaderboards, you often have to play these easy bundles, yet many long-time achievement hunters are finally stepping away, frustrated by what they describe as “baby games” and exhausted by the shift toward quantity over quality.

There’s clearly a place for id@Xbox titles. Whether you enjoy puzzle games, platformers, or whatever genre, their existence shouldn’t be up for debate. What should be questioned is how Xbox is managing an achievement environment that was once a major draw to the platform. Addressing unnecessary Xbox One/Xbox Series stacks and capping Gamerscore payouts for id@Xbox releases could go a long way toward restoring balance and perhaps even returning achievement hunting to something closer to its glory days.

What are your thoughts on the current state of Xbox Gamerscore?

Let us know in the comments below.