There's no indication that there's not a system-wide achievement system, just that not all games have to have them.
My reading of it was he said achievements would be developer driven (local to games) and not something they'd be supporting or encouraging. Just in general PR terms if they were planning some sort of framework he'd be selling and encouraging it rather than talking about developers who don't like having to use it. It's not literally saying its not happening but its not something he'd mention if it was.
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Smurf, the cream of Sonic fanboyism