Good old Sony. Undisputed leaders of the pack last generation but, having tripped up on their laurels, forever playing catch up this time around. First Wiimote-style motion sensitive controls are ineffectually implemented, then rumble is bolted to the Sixaxis pad and, most recently, we have the Trophy system which - obviously - is in no way inspired by the Xbox 360’s popular Achievements. Ahem…

The Trophy system has been a slow-starter since it launched this summer, with just a handful of publishers adding or retro fitting it to their offerings - Bioshock, Drake’s Fortune and Burnout Paradise being three of the highest profile adopters. That said, momentum is certainly gathering and the option for publishers to choose whether to add Trophies or not as they see fit is officially over as of 2009.

Yup, from January 1st onwards Trophies will be mandatory, says Sony. This means that every game submitted to certification will need to incorporate Trophy support. It’s a somewhat authoritative edict but, we think, a decent one if it means that developers spend time thinking about how best to incorporate the Trophies rather than sloppily adding them after a game’s release. If they bother at all.

That’s the theory, anyway, and we dearly hope it works too. Right now, though, we’re just not feeling the same urge to collect ’em all in the games that do boast Trophy support. Whereas we’re shameless ‘cheev hounds on the 360. But let’s wait and see how it all works out.