Microsoft recently made the decision to drop their Point system from Xbox Live. It was a move that many people on Xbox Live have been wanting for quite some time. While you could get discounts on Microsoft Points (thus saving money), the system itself had a few annoyances that many aren’t mourning the loss of. Now Microsoft is refreshing their Xbox Live Reward program to reflect changes to the loss of Microsoft Points. Details after the break.
Familiar with Xbox Live Rewards? It’s a loyalty program for members on Xbox Live that offered Microsoft Points as rewards. You could get those Microsoft Points by doing things like renewing your membership, playing games, taking surveys, and other engagements through Xbox Live.
Now that Microsoft Points have gone the way of the Dodo there are a few changes to the site. The site itself has received an overhaul in the UI department. Things have been cleaned up and received the Metro Microsoft Design Language treatment. It’s also easier to see how you can earn credits within the Xbox Live Rewards program and how you can spend those credits.
Go check out the site and see the various ways you can earn credits and spend them. For example, you can earn 5,000 Rewards Credits by purchasing any five map packs between now and October 1st. If you renew your Xbox Live Gold account you can rack up 250 Rewards Credits with a 1 month renewal or 3,000 Rewards Credits for 12 months.
Go rack up Rewards Credits and turn them into cash for your Microsoft Account. You aren’t getting something for nothing, you do spend money to get Rewards Credits. But it’s a nice way to get a little something back for an action you were probably going to do anyways. Surveys are a nice way to earn Rewards Credits without spending money too.
Rack up 5,000 Rewards Credits and turn that into $5 USD.
Make sure you go to http://rewards.xbox.com to sign up if you haven’t already. This program is only available in 16 countries. Places like the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, France, and others. Check their FAQ to learn more.
Thanks for the tip stevearsenault!
Reader comments
Microsoft spruces up Xbox Live Rewards, your Rewards Credits will now become cash
Can't wait for this to come to Finland.. Sweden is already there so might not be too far away.
I don't see surveys anymore. Did they take this away?
Sorry. Yes still here.
5,000 = 5? Whats wrong with that picture. Think they can do better than that. Maybe 4,999 =6. Just throwing it out there. Talk amongst yourselves.
^^ this, that is a rather poor exchange rate.
With MS Points I could save a ton more money buying discounted points cards.
It's actually perfect as you can convert to dollars by shifting the decimal point (dividing by 1000). So 4567 = $4.567. If it was 4999 = 6 you'd have to get out the calculator... so 4567 = $5.481. Keeping it "metric" is good :)
Or, they could just abandon stupid point systems altogether...
Its the same rate as before with points when you break it down. Each survey is 250 points. So 25 cents, before each survey was 20 points, 80 points = $1, 80/20 = 4, $1/4 = 25 cents.
Visited the site.yesterday and mehn, it's a marvelous site. Has a lot of info.
There is also a higher tier for marketplace discounts. Up to 3% off if you have a high enough Gamerscore
Now I can just use money to buy Xbox games on both Xbox and Windows Phone. Much better than Point system.
Unlike before when... You could do exactly that...
Except you couldn't buy Windows Phone games with points, so stop talking bollocks.
Many people preferred getting discounts on Microsoft points and many people are annoyed that these bargain opportunities have gone away. Many people will spend much less on XBox live.
How have they gone away. You'll still be able to buy cards and iTunes cards often are on sale. The only reason things might change is that people are now more aware of the actual value of the cards.
How can you possibly not get this concept? With points, the cards could be discounted, with real dollars, they will always cost the face value.
Oddly, real dollar iTunes gift cards go on sale fairly often, I'd imagine the Xbox gift cards will do the same as well.
Personally I didn't like that points had to be bought in set increments, other than that it never bothered me either way.
Is Portugal part of the rewards program?!
Click the FAQ link. It's the 3rd item in the list... "United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Italy, Spain, Taiwan or Sweden"
Now if only they allowed things like this in Europe,!
The last time I checked United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain & Sweden were part of Europe :P
What??
I lost my points when I had to make a new account. The old one had the word spam in my email address and their system constantly froze my account automatically, thinking that I had to be a very dangerous person.
So after having to spend a lot of time sorting that out a few times only to have it happen again, I gave up. But of course my points weren't refundable. That is what the point system was for I believe. Whenever someone died, lost interest, had their Xbox stolen or whatever, Microsoft got to keep the money for their Microsoft Points.
I'm pretty sure the point system was developed to mask the cost of items in the marketplace originally. Instead of an avatar item costing $3, it cost x amount of points.
It also allowed for the system of having to buy a set amount of points, which promotes having a remaining balance of points in your account, which one is then more inclined to use up on unplanned purchases.
True.
I tried my best not to scoff. 3% back.
It's better than nothing! People go nuts for $0.04/L discounts on petrol... At $1.50/L here that's 2.6%
God forbid they give you stuff for doing nothing
Is this separate from Bing Rewards? 500 Bing points =$5
Bing rewards are for Bing, Xbox Live rewards is for Xbox Live, so yes they are different