Back in September 2020, Xbox gave Bethesda studio head Todd Howard a game made just for him to celebrate his GDC lifetime achievement award. Simply running the game unlocked an Xbox achievement called "Lifetime" worth 1,000 Gamerscore, and thanks to an apparent database update, we finally know the description of that achievement.
Reputable achievement hound TrueAchievements recently uncovered the full description of Howard's "Lifetime" achievement, which can be found on a search just like any normal Xbox achievement. It reads: "Reflects on the amazing craft of Todd Howard and his team in making worlds as real as any on Earth."
The reveal has brought out TrueAchievements comments featuring Howard's best-known memes, including "all the Skyrim re-releases." "It just works!" adds one user, a throwback to a heavily memed Fallout 4 presentation. "Who's laughing now?" asks another, quoting a bit from a younger Howard sticking it to the folks who didn't believe that he, once a proud chess club member, would one day "make video games, and everyone's gonna play them."
Howard has been in game dev for 30 years. He joined Bethesda in 1994 and contributed to the CD version of The Elder Scrolls: Arena, but his first full release was 1995's The Terminator: Future Shock, which was also one of Bethesda Softwork's earlier games. He rose to fame as a director on Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim.
Most recently, he was able to live out one directorial dream with Starfield, the sort of space RPG Howard had wanted to make for years. He notched another career goal as executive producer on Indiana Jones and the Great, a Bethesda-published entry in a series that Howard has always loved. Former Bethesda marketing VP Pete Hines reckoned Howard "might be the biggest Indiana Jones fan on the planet."
Todd Howard regrets not supporting Fallout 4 and Skyrim for longer, but won't make the mistake with Elder Scrolls 6 and Starfield as he hints a "10-year horizon" has already been considered.
