The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 offers gamers the chance to earn achievements so why is Nintendo not doing the same? Find out the response inside.

The Xbox 360 introduced the concept of in-game achievements to the gaming masses, whereby gamers 'unlock' achievements once they do certain tasks or meet objectives in a certain manner. Sony later introduced a similar system, known as Trophies, into the PlayStation 3. The system has very vocal fans but Nintendo has not introduced anything like it and now one of its employees has stated why.

Nintendo's Bill Trinen, Nintendo of America's head of product marketing, has spoken to Kotaku about the issue and why he believes Nintendo doesn't need them. He claims that Nintendo game developers do not wish to tell you how to play the game just to get some form of arbitrary reward.

"Basically, the way the games are designed is they're designed for you to explore the game yourself and have this sense of discovery. To that end, I think that when you look specifically at games from EAD and a lot of other games that Nintendo has developed a well, there are things you can do in the game that will result in some sort of reward or unexpected surprise. In my mind, that really encourages the sense of exploration rather than the sense of 'If I do that, I'm going to get some sort of artificial point or score that's going to make me feel better that I got this.' And that, to me, is I think more compelling."

While some Nintendo games have had similar achievements systems, such as Super Smash Bros. Melee, they have not informed gamers upfront what they have to do to achieve them. Typically achievements for Xbox 360 and PS3 titles are posted online before the game's release.

Obviously this is just one Nintendo employee's interpretation and is by no means the official company line on achievements but considering Nintendo could have implemented an achievements system by this point there must be a reason why they have not done.