There's been a lot of talk about Microsoft Rewards in the Xbox community and beyond over the past few weeks and months, and sadly it's not always been for the best reasons. Those who use the program regularly have noticed that many ways of earning points have been reduced, and that's been happening as recently as this week.
The disgruntlement has been very apparent, and yet Microsoft hasn't been actively responding to it. However, the website WIndows Latest has now received a statement from a Microsoft spokesperson, and it reads as follows:
"Over the last few years, the Microsoft Rewards program has regularly evolved to reflect our growth and expansion. We evaluate every change for consistency and fairness, tuning the methods and frequency through which our members can earn points."
"Whether searching with Bing, browsing with Edge, playing on Xbox, or making purchases in the Microsoft store, we know our members take delight in the added incentive the Microsoft Rewards program offers. We aim to grow in ways that continue to provide value to our members, and we eagerly monitor feedback to ensure satisfaction. We appreciate the enthusiasm and loyalty of our Microsoft Rewards members and remain excited for the program’s future."
While it's definitely a bit of a generic statement, it's good to know that Microsoft is apparently still "excited for the program's future" and it will "aim to grow in ways that continue to provide value to our members". That said, it would have been nice for more transparency about exactly why certain decisions have been made over the past few months.
Why did we need to lose the Monthly Bonus Round points? Why are the Microsoft Edge bonuses being taken away? If Microsoft just came out and said, "it's because you were earning too many points for it to be sustainable", we could actually sympathise with that. As it stands, there's still a lot of secrecy that leaves us too much in the dark.
Nevertheless, we obviously still love this program and continue to earn thousands of points with it per-month! It's been amazing for the most part, and we're just hoping this trend of declining points doesn't continue too much longer.