Microsoft gave Todd Howard an exclusive 1,000-Gamerscore achievement in 2016, and we finally know what it is

There is at least one Xbox achievement that you will never have, and the reason is simple: It was custom made for Bethesda creative chief Todd Howard, and nobody can have it except him. But after years of secrecy, thanks to a discovery by achievement tracker site TrueAchievements (via GamesRadar), we can now at least see what it is.

The story begins in 2016, when Howard was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at GDC. During his acceptance speech, which he reminisced about in a blog post he put up after Microsoft announced its acquisition of Bethesda in 2020, he jokingly wondered how many achievement points a Lifetime Achievement Award was worth.

"At the end of the ceremony, some good friends from Microsoft congratulated me and said they’d find out," Howard wrote. "A few months later I was given a code to a game they had created, named after me and locked to my account. When ran, it unlocks a single achievement—'Lifetime - 1000pts.' It still sits in my list when I check, and I smile every time."

That game can actually be seen at Xbox.com, although of course it's not available for purchase or download. But the achievement text had remained secret until TrueAchievement's recent discovery. "Lifetime," as the achievement is known, "Reflects on the amazing craft of Todd Howard and his team in making worlds as real as any on Earth."

I was a little baffled when I first looked at the achievement, because it was still showing as "secret," and without the reported description. This, a TrueAchievements rep helpfully explained, is the nature of the site. By default, the site does not show unlocked achievement descriptions to people who haven't earned them—and since no one but Todd Howard has earned this one, no one but Todd Howard gets to see it. 

To get around this cheevo secrecy layer, go into your account settings (and yes, you'll need a TrueAchievements account to do this) and select "site settings," then enable the "always show unlocked achievement descriptions" setting. And just like that, there it is.

That's a nice gesture, isn't it? The response to the newly-revealed achievement is quite positive, and naturally—because this is the internet—it has inspired a few users to post guides explaining how to unlock the achievement. Some are quite in-depth, such as one from Cpl Kane ZA, which requires facial reconstruction surgery, a time machine, and a possible murder; others, like paramoreRyan's submission, are more to the point: "Be Todd Howard."

Well, we can't all be Todd Howard, but we can acknowledge that if anyone deserves their own custom cheevo, it's probably him. Howard's list of credits is enviable to say the least, beginning with The Terminator: Future Shock in 1995 and running through Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Starfield. He's currently serving as executive producer on the much-anticipated Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and we also maintain hope that he's squeezing some time with The Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 in there, too.