Xbox might have broken Achievements – here's how to fix them and why it matters

We recently explained why we think Sony’s Trophies are better than Xbox Achievements, and it looks like we have one more reason to add to that list: Trophies actually unlock. Based on numerous reports online and from our own writers, it appears that some Xbox Achievements are currently broken and won’t pop up for players when they complete challenges – and you can blame Quick Resume for the problem.

The issue has supposedly been lingering since the launch of the Xbox Series X and Series S, with people noticing that using Quick Resume could affect Achievements in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. However, most players have only just become aware of the problem as it seems to be an incredibly prevalent issue in Hades, the hit roguelite that just launched on Xbox Game Pass.

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We’ve had problems ourselves, even after completing multiple runs and in-game challenges we had only unlocked one achievement in Hades and that was for exiting the first area. Thankfully it seems like booting up the game without using Quick Resume fixes the issue, but it’s not a full solution.

Given that Quick Resume is one of the best features available on current-gen gaming hardware (letting you almost instantly pick up a game where you left off) it’s a serious problem that it doesn’t work properly.

How to fix your Xbox Achievements

If you’re having similar issues with Achievements, we have some good news and some bad. We’ve found that for most Achievements, you can make them unlock by completely closing the game you’re playing and then restarting it (without using Quick Resume). Once you’re loaded into your save file you should then see a wave of popups signaling that you have indeed completed certain challenges.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a foolproof system though. From our experience, Hades seems to reward players retroactively for completing the game and fulfilling in-game quests (called prophecies) but won’t give you a prize for having beaten an achievement-specific challenge. For example, despite having already escaped the Underworld using a hidden weapon aspect (a special version of one of the six main weapons), we had to do it all over again to earn the Weapon of Fate achievement.

On top of that, using this method means that it will take you longer to get back into your games, making playing on your Xbox hardware a lot less convenient than before.

Opinion: Has Xbox lost interest in Achievements?

We’re sure that there will be plenty of you who might not even think Achievements are even that big of a deal. And while that may be true for you, for others (myself included) Achievements are a great way to eke out every drop of enjoyment from my favorite games.

Whether it's the satisfaction of earning a prestigious 1000 out of 1000 Gamerscore in a title, discovering some otherwise hidden secret I’d have never known about or finding a brand new way to approach a game’s challenges, I adore every aspect of achievement hunting. If a game has poorly designed Achievements it can bug me so much that I can lose the urge to keep playing.

So having one of Xbox’s own convenience features getting in the way of my hunt is incredibly annoying.

Since Achievements launched back in 2005 on the Xbox 360 they’ve become an iconic part of Xbox gaming. So it’s surprising, and a little disappointing, that they continue to be impacted by Quick Resume despite players first noticing problems last November. At this point, it starts to feel like Achievements just aren’t that important to Xbox anymore.

We hope that isn’t the case, and we’ve reached out to Xbox for a statement to find out if they are looking into fixes for the issue. We will update this article with a response should we receive one.