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Xbox's Rarest Achievement Belongs To Bethesda Boss Todd Howard

Todd Howard, whose company has just joined the Xbox family, is the only person still allowed to make "Achievement Unlocked" jokes.

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The pop of an Xbox Achievement unlocking can be a sweet sound, one that indicates that you've done something worth celebrating and that your Gamerscore has increased to reflect it. But for Todd Howard, director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios, there's one Xbox Achievement that's particularly special--because he's the only person in the world who will ever have it, thanks to some folks at Microsoft.

Following the news that Microsoft has acquired Bethesda for $7.5 billion, Howard spoke about his history with Xbox in a post on Bethesda's website. In it, he shares an anecdote about a bespoke Achievement created just for him, which exists only on his account.

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That's right, Achievement hunters: You will never be able to get this Achievement.

"When I received the Lifetime Achievement Award at GDC, I joked in my acceptance, 'I wonder how many Achievement points this one is worth?' At the end of the ceremony, some good friends from Microsoft congratulated me and said they'd find out," Howard recalls.

"A few months later I was given a code to a game they had created, named after me and locked to my account," he continues. "When ran, it unlocks a single Achievement - 'Lifetime - 1000pts.' It still sits in my list when I check, and I smile every time."

Unfortunately, we don't know Todd Howard's Gamertag or Gamerscore--or whether he ever farmed Avatar the Last Airbender: The Burning Earth for an easy 1000GS.

Now, Howard has another massive Xbox milestone to celebrate--Microsoft paid more for Bethesda than it's paid for any other studio acquisition, topping Mojang by several billion dollars. It was also far more than what Disney paid for Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise. In fact, it's the second-largest video game acquisition in history. Microsoft went from having a semi-weak lineup of first-party studios a few years ago to now having one of the best.

Howard also talked about Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI, and how they'll introduce an enormous engine overhaul. In a separate interview, Howard has also talked more about Starfield and how next-gen console tech has had an impact on it.

Xbox Series X and Series S launch on November 10 and your Gamerscore will carry over to these new systems. Xbox preorders are available now, but, as expected, they have been messy.

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