PlayStation 3 Games To Require Trophies From January 2009

Sony has confirmed that support for its PlayStation 3 Trophy reward system will be mandatory for PS3 games releasing in 2009, having introduced the online awards in July of this year, according to media reports. Sony's PlayStation 3 Trophy system functions similarly to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Achievements, although there is no aggregate score across all titles for Trophies. They have been implemented in a wide variety of PlayStation 3 games released since their introduction, and have even been added in older titles such as Super Stardust HD via patches. However, Sony had not made their inclusion mandatory until now. A Sony Europe statement published by consumer site VideoGamer.com confirms that games that are published after January 1st, 2009 will have to support Trophies. Games which are submitted to Sony for final production have to meet Sony's Technical Requirements Checklist, or TRC, which covers a wide variety of issues, and thus, it's believe that formal requirements for Trophy support are being integrated into this process. [UPDATE: A Sony Computer Entertainment America spokesperson has given Gamasutra the following statement: "Trophies will be mandatory for titles submitted after January 1, 2009. Of course, many teams have already started to incorporate Trophies and have added support for older titles."]