Earlier this week, we shared the news that Xbox Game Pass Quests would be getting a major overhaul to kick off 2025 (in some regions), and that overhaul has now taken place - marking significant changes to how the program works.
As you can see in the image above, one of the biggest changes is that almost everything is geared around playing games on a consistent basis now - there are multiple forms of streaks that you can rack up (with multipliers that can come into play), and new Monthly 4-Pack and 8-Pack challenges that force you to explore the Game Pass library.
Some of the older Xbox Game Pass Quests have now been removed entirely as a result, including the requirement to earn achievements on a daily basis - which some players are extremely grateful for as you can see down below:
However, not everyone is entirely happy with the changes that have been made to Xbox Rewards. Some have complained about the new 4-Pack and 8-Pack tasks, pointing out that people will just sit idle on each game for 15 minutes which feels a bit pointless. In rare cases, these quests apparently haven't been tracking correctly as well.
We've seen a little bit of criticism about the new streak multipliers too, which are a lucrative way to earn points but require a lot of consistency per-month. There's even been some disappointment surrounding the whole achievement thing - a small selection of players are just sad to see this taken away, especially in regards to the YouTube channel Rewards Hunter (run by Twitter user ChickenPossible) which has proved a valuable and beloved resource:
Here are some of those concerns about the 4-Pack and 8-Pack challenges for Xbox Rewards:
As much as there has been a divided response, we'd say the majority of Microsoft Rewards and Xbox Game Pass Quests users are siding towards a positive viewpoint, and hopefully that continues to be the trend throughout 2025.
We're only just getting started as well, of course, so here's hoping Xbox's Rewards program will continue to evolve over the next 12 months with new quests and ways to redeem your points. We're still massive fans of it here at Pure Xbox!
What do you think of the Xbox Rewards changes so far? Tell us down in the comments section below.
Comments 36
My main gripe is that Xbox Rewards are only available in small number of countries.
Which is hilarious, because Microsoft Rewards ARE available in my country. But Xbox Rewards are not.
WTF?
I'm quite pleased with the changes and I'm really glad I don't have to stress over an achievement anymore. I really like the play a pc game streak also.
Got to love the Reddit journalism.
It's one of the few things I actively dislike about this site (& push square). I was kind of hoping it would be left behind in 2024.
I am undecided if the change is good or not. I will have to see how and if it changes how I play. But requiring 15 minutes a day to keep up a streak will just encourage people to boot up their Xbox and leave a game running if they are playing elsewhere, ESPECIALLY if there are streak multipliers.
@RiverGenie Fair enough. We're just following trends - history tells us that people like seeing reactions from places like Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Threads etc when it makes sense.
This was originally written up as a straight Talking Point with no Reddit or Twitter links whatsoever, but I personally felt the different viewpoints added to the story.
This might be worth doing if you’re really engaged with Xbox/PC and Game Pass, but I’m out, now they feel like such a chore to do I’m not even going to bother, and I had been doing quests since the Rewards app back in the Xbone generation where you could actually gets lots of points.
It’s still something but now it’s clearly designed to boost their metrics as it’ll only rewards you almost the same points if you play continuously all 7 days a week, don’t miss a single streak and spend hours trying different Game Pass games, that way you appear as such an engaged customer even if you only played the required 15 minutes, in a few months or years I can totally see them using this argument “yes there’s less sold consoles and less active users on our platforms but user engagement is very high so it’s all fine”.
If I still cared about Game Pass, this would be a W. Achievements becoming a resource you had to choose between rationing out and stop playing after one or keep playing and burn through them was miserable.
I think the inclusion of the opinions of others is always warranted, @FraserG. It is also a method of verifying what is being said in the article, thus I like it! 😉
I for one am pleased to see the back of the requirement to earn an achievement. Playing through a game that you have no interest in simply to earn an achievement is a real pain, plus sometimes I've spent an hour trying to get an achievement, when the whole time there is a game that I would far rather be playing...
It's a bit crap if you're not playing any gamepass games I will say!
It seems to me that while the changes themselves are good (Im OCD so the achievement related ones were a pain), it also appears that we will be getting less points this way as well, which has been a trend for the last year.
You win some, you lose some i guess.
It feels more streamlined now. I always max out available points, but it seems so much less cumbersome now. Very straight-forward.
If you play regularly, you get more points now and you don't have to worry about obtaining a Game Pass achievement every day for unlocking the monthly 1,000 points reward (the biggest reward). They were smart changing this because now players are encouraged to try different games on Game Pass but don't overload a single game, like when Game Pass quests were specific.
The daily achievement was absolutely one of the most obnoxious ones.
But at least gave me a chuckle, knowing there were complete and total sweaty award point chasers going for that daily.
I like not having to get a achievement BUT from the past streak mess ups it won't be long before someone's streak gets messed up for no reason what so ever and then earning less points because of it ,then that leads to emails to support that takes weeks of talking to different ppl to try and get it all sorted , its happened soooo manny times in the past,now even the streak protection is failing a hell of a lot of people and it's a roulette if it's going to work or not
Doesn't seem to work with EA Play games on GPU. Tried it yesterday with FC 24 and it didn't work. Haven't got round to checking today. So maybe it's working now.
Losing the achievement points means I'll not be playing as many games like peppa pig in the future.
Whats annoying is that any game you own thats on gamepass doesnt get included in your gamepass games you have played. The only games that would add to my total was gamepass titles I didnt own.
@TheIronChimp
I can confirm that that is a glitch or delay. I played Crash Team Racing today and it shows as my third monthly pack title. I bought this game years ago.
I'm pleased with the changes, I'm so glad it removes the need to get a daily achievement. I play a lot of COD daily anyway so will get the dailies from that then I will try out other games to get the play 4 and play 8 points.
@Banjo- Tried a couple of games I own now that are also on Gamepass and some show but others dont.
I like the changes as it makes it less of a grind of turning it on each day and trying to find a game to score a quick achievement…
@TheIronChimp What games have you tried? You can try contacting Xbox to check if something's wrong with your account or maybe a glitch because of the new system. I hope it gets sorted out.
I like the old quests versus the new changes. As an Xbox player, earning achievements is the easiest part of the MS Rewards program. There's so many Gamepass games to try and not enough time to finish them all.
The monthly are not working for me. I have played multiple games for over 15 minutes (and not just idling) but I l only have credit for the one game I played on PC. Seems like my console is not giving me credit. I have emailed support... We shall see what they say.
I am not sure about the new system.if I can get the same amount of points then I am ok with it. It was hard to try to get 9 achievements in 1 month. The 2 achievements the following month (both for the 1000 pnt monthly) was easy. I am up for playing different games as that is how I was getting new achievements anyway. It was just that however, playing only when I needed an achievement. Now I feel I should enjoy playing different games just for fun.
@Banjo- nhl24, Hot wheels 2. Seems like my console games aren't getting credit. I emailed support, we shall see how fast they fix it. My PC game got credit
@TheIronChimp I have had issues as well. PC game got credit. Not the 2 I played on console. I do not own either of them. Nhl24 Hot wheels 2.
These rewards are easier, but I am not sure I would say better, but certainly brain dead... I just launch any game left it idle for 15 min, did something else, repeat & knocked off the 4 & 8 game quests. PC & Console quests will mostly be launch game for 15min, if I don't actually have time to play what I want to.... At least for me, the achievements forced you to actually play a game...
My least favorite rewards change was them mass banning everyone for a few hours earlier this week.
Overall I'd say the user experience has greatly improved. The OG Xbox Microsoft Rewards app was especially ROUGH. The points nerf has been real, but I don't think the quantities of points being given away for nothing was long term sustainable.
That said I'd add a couple of things to improveme engagement. A permanent achievement score to point gain system would be nice. It'd be similar to those old campaigns, but they could maybe lower it to 1 achievement score = 1/2 a point or even 1/4 of a point. Then cap it at like 500 with a reset every month. It'd be nice to get rewarded in some way for achievements, but wouldn't force gamers into being pressured like the daily achievement had. The other thing I'd like is if Microsoft made use of AI in an actually useful way and generated an extra daily quest (or series of weekly quests) for each gamer personally based on their gaming history. They already have all of this data and (very poorly) use it for some of the worst recommendations I've seen in the modern internet age. It'd be fantastic if they transformed discovery into a more gamer like experience where gamers are given unique quests to complete that encourage them to try new games. Like if I only play Fornite but am subscribed to GP then I could get a unique daily quest for like 10 - 50pts to accomplish XYZ in Gears of War 5 (a third person shooter that's more single player focused). Stuff like that. They could get more sophisticated with the algorithm. Regardless it's crazy to me how bad Microsoft is with recommendations. They could combine Microsoft rewards and the improved language models to do something really interesting with them and encourage gamers to play more different types of games. It'd be neat.
@Banjo- It seems for me to be the EA games at the moment. Grid Legends, Burnout Paradise and Peggle (playing with our youngist). Minecraft Dungeons didnt appear but has now so will see if others do at a later date. Crash team racing appeared which I owned so there is hope it might get sorted
@ThunderStix9597 @TheIronChimp EA Play games are excluded because technically they are not Game Pass titles, but Game Pass Ultimate includes EA Play. However, Hot Wheels 2 is not an EA game so that one should appear.
I guessed they noticed that lots of people were getting the ‘play 3 game pass games’ reward in less than a minute just by pressing start on them! The rewards website or app is another quick way to accumulate points. I can usually manage 6-7,000 points a month without much effort.
@Banjo- Hot Wheels showed up today. NHL has not. Seems silly that EA is included in Ultimate but these games don't count. I am paying for that access.
I don't really care either way. It looks like it might be slightly better for me but it has zero impact on how I play games.
Meh. Never used rewards anyways. I boot up my XSX to play games. Can't be bothered doing a 'chores' list just for points. I still auto-sub monthly price for GP. Who cares for a few quid?
Just in case anyone stumbles upon this article without reading the follow-up, I'll post it here to make it easy to get to:
https://www.purexbox.com/news/2025/01/rewards-hunter-announces-retirement-following-xbox-rewards-overhaul
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