Valve is adding “achievement sets” to Steam. Developers will be able to sort a game’s achievements into separate groups for the base game and each piece of downloadable content. Players earn achievements in the same way as before. The change is in how unlocked achievements are shown afterwards.
Key takeaways
- Valve is adding a Steam feature called achievement sets, which lets developers sort a game’s achievements into separate groups.
- According to The Verge, the groups are intended to separate a base game’s achievements from those tied to its downloadable content.
- Valve says players in supported games still unlock achievements by playing normally, so the feature changes how achievements are displayed rather than how they are earned.
- Several details are not yet clear, including how widely developers will use the feature and how it will affect completion figures shown on Steam profiles.
Steam achievement sets
The Verge reports that Valve is introducing achievement sets as a significant change to how Steam handles achievements. Achievements are the in-game goals that Steam records against a player’s account. They range from finishing a story chapter to completing obscure challenges. Since they were introduced they have been one of the platform’s most visible features. They appear on store pages, in each player’s library and on public profiles.
Until now, each game on Steam has generally had one achievement list. Anything a developer added, whether at launch or years later, went into that list. Achievement sets change this by allowing a single game to hold several distinct groups. According to The Verge, the feature is designed so that developers can present different collections of achievements for a base game and for its DLCs.
The feature depends on developers choosing to use it. Valve’s wording refers to “games that support sets”, which suggests developers must opt in and that existing games will not be reorganised automatically. The source material does not say whether Valve will offer tools to convert older achievement lists, or whether the feature is available to every developer on Steam from the start.
Separate groups for base games and DLC
The most practical use of the feature is separating achievements for the main game from those added through expansions. This has long been a source of friction for people who collect achievements.
Under a single shared list, buying a game and finishing everything in it does not guarantee a complete record. If the developer later releases paid DLC with its own achievements, those are added to the same list. A player who had 100 per cent completion can find themselves below that figure without having done anything differently. The only way to restore a full record is to buy and play the new content. Some players see this as an unwelcome nudge towards extra purchases. Others simply find it confusing, because the list no longer reflects what they actually own.
Grouping achievements by content should make that distinction visible. A player who owns only the base game could, in principle, see a complete set for the content they have, kept apart from sets tied to expansions. The Verge’s summary does not confirm exactly how Steam will calculate or display completion percentages under the new system. It is also not known whether profile features that count fully completed games will treat each set separately. Those details will decide how far the change resolves the problem in practice.
Unlocking unchanged, browsing reorganised
Valve stresses that the experience of earning achievements stays the same. As The Verge relays it, players in supported games keep unlocking achievements simply by playing. Nothing about how the game detects and awards them changes.
The difference comes afterwards, when players look back over what they have unlocked. The available excerpt of Valve’s explanation is cut off at the point where it describes what Steam will do in that view. The specific layout and the interface details are therefore not covered here. What is clear is that the grouping happens in Steam’s presentation layer: the achievement pages, library views and related screens where players review their progress.
This matters for developers as well as players. Because the earning mechanism is unchanged, the feature should in principle not require changes to how a game reports achievements to Steam. It may only require developers to assign existing and new achievements to groups. The source material does not describe the developer tools involved, so this remains an inference from Valve’s description rather than a confirmed detail.
What achievement sets say about how players use Steam
Taken together, these elements show that Valve is treating achievements as a record that players care about, not only as an incidental reward. A feature that leaves earning untouched but reorganises the display only makes sense if many people regularly browse, compare and curate their achievement lists.
That matches how achievements have developed across gaming more widely. For a large share of players they are part of how a game is experienced and remembered. Completion hunting has become a recognised hobby, with communities built around finishing every challenge a game offers. Rival platforms have their own versions, and some allow achievements to be organised in comparable ways. Steam’s move brings its system closer to a model in which a game’s long life, with expansions released over several years, is reflected in how its achievements are presented.
The change also reflects how games are now sold. Many titles are no longer finished products at launch. They are supported over long periods with paid expansions, story packs and seasonal content. A single flat achievement list suited a time when a game was largely complete on release day. Achievement sets look like an attempt to fit the platform’s presentation to a release model where content arrives in stages and players own different parts of it.
Several questions remain open. It is not known how many developers will adopt the feature, whether well-known older games with large DLC catalogues will be updated, or how completion statistics on profiles will be recalculated. The effect on achievement-tracking communities and third-party sites that rely on Steam data is also unclear. Until supported games appear and players can see the feature in use, the clearest available information is Valve’s own outline: achievements are earned as before, and grouped differently afterwards.
Sources and further reading
- The Verge, technology and games publication: report on Valve’s introduction of achievement sets on Steam.
- Valve, developer and operator of Steam: official description of how achievement sets work for players.
- Steamworks documentation, Valve’s developer resource: general background on how achievements are implemented in Steam games.
- Steam community discussions, player forums: long-running debate about DLC achievements and completion records.
Surfaced from the rss:verge signal “gaming platform feature update”. AI-assisted draft, editorially reviewed.
