We've seen Microsoft Rewards suffering from a lot of reductions on Xbox over the past few months, and sadly it looks like that's set to continue in December 2023, as the old Microsoft Rewards app is seemingly being shut down.
This is according to a message that a Microsoft Rewards user has received in Brazil, which also appears to mention that the Weekly Streaks in the MS Rewards app will be retired in late November as a result.
Here's a (rough) Google Translation of the message the user has seen on their Xbox:
"We recreated, simplified, and integrated the Rewards experience on Xbox, making it revolve around the gameplay and activities players love most. With the new Rewards Hub on Xbox, players will no longer need to have separate apps to earn or redeem Rewards points on Xbox.
Starting in December 2023, we will no longer publish offers in the Microsoft Rewards app on Xbox, focusing new activities on the new Rewards hub. Basically, this change is intended to simplify and streamline the Rewards experience for players and help them access all Xbox-related offers and activities in one convenient place. The weekly series continues until the end of November, after which it will be retired in the app, along with the weekly series. Rewards with Xbox will remain part of the Microsoft Rewards program, and any points you earn on Xbox will continue to be associated with points from other parts of the program."
At the time of writing, this message is still not showing up yet in most countries, and it's worth considering there could be regional differences. It's also not clarified whether the Weekly Streaks will be going away forever, or whether they'll transition into the new Rewards hub. That said, we'd probably not get your hopes up for a positive outcome on that!
Anyway, we'll keep an eye on this and let you know if there's definitive confirmation about the app and Weekly Streaks in the near future. Keep in mind that this news doesn't affect things like Xbox Game Pass Quests and various other ways to earn Microsoft Points on Xbox and beyond... but it's certainly still disappointing to hear.
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know down in the comments section below.
Comments 43
And the positive Xbox news just keeps on coming … ugh.
I really get the impression MS the parent side is not happy with how little money Xbox is making them, there's been way to many things like this lately.
I lost my 182 week streak 2 weeks ago. I was absolutely gutted but this has weakened the blow.
Still disappointing though
Had to happen at some point. Getting free Gamepass Ultimate using Microsoft points each month is not great business sense. Shame.
"making it revolve around the gameplay and activities players love most".
They just reduced the points for playing and getting achievements.
So it'll never make it to other regions. That's sad.
@Deadeyerobbie Microsoft do actuality get things from us doing the points from bing etc.
And honestly for the time it now takes to get 10-12k points it’s better to do an hour’s overtime and pay for it that way (assuming you can of course)
@Phantasystar77 there's a redemption limit? How much is that?
Well this is a crappy Thanksgiving surprise.
I just got my latest 2.5k points for I think 120 weeks last week so guess I'm less annoyed than I would have been.
But no two ways about it - this sucks, and if they don't compensate with more points on the new Rewards tab then it's definitely a big reduction in what we're getting.
I use it to get Xbox gift cards I then use to buy games from the Xbox store rather than my old way of going to CDKeys - guess I'll be going back there more in the future...
Guess there is one positive - the Rewards tab like much of the newer Xbox stuff that seems to go across mobile / web too seems to work 100% of the time.
Whereas the Rewards app has had truly awful performance (so many Service Is Unavailable errors!) for the last year or two - the Insider app isn't much better...
Another day. Another piece of disappointing Xbox news. Looking more and more like this is the last generation of Xbox consoles for me. And if not their last, the next to last Xbox console Microsoft puts out. Been there since 2001 and have a 18 year Xbox Live badge.
Really not sure what they're even doing nowadays, but pushing the console market surely isn't it.
@Kaloudz Think it's the likelihood they'll kill the weekly streaks or reduce them in value that's particularly gutting.
They've been penny-pinching the rewards for a while - I'm a huge fan of them and do it across mobile, web and console but I'll admit it's only really the 2.5k points for 10 week streaks that's really feels like it's worth the effort anymore.
If they cut that back too, it becomes less worthwhile - I'm already less bothered if I miss the monthly Game Pass 500 points now it's not 1K.
The only plus side is it means the end of that truly awful app - it's so slow even on a Series X!
Microsoft Rewards always struck me as being a little overly generous, so I'm not surprised they're reducing benefits.
Still, it was one of the few draws to the Xbox brand/ecosystem, and now they're torching it.
I'd be surprised if by the end of 2024 it exists outside of Bing Searches & the Rewards for GPU members-only. The only reason I have Ultimate is because its self-sufficient with Rewards - the second that changes I'm downgrading to Core. Most if not all the games I play on Game Pass aren't full price releases anyways.
It'll be nice not having to unplug the Xbox and switch my phone to being a mobile data hotspot three times a week any more.
I continually championed Microsoft rewards, but lately they really have obliterated the amount of points you can make from it. I think this was a deliberate move to soften the blow of this news. I don't think it'll be too long before rewards are gone for good. It was good while it lasted.
I am hoping something better will evolve from all this… currently the app is really clunky.
However they need to set the minimum reward to 10. The 3 or 5 points is superfluous at best
Poppycock & shangdangery
Definitely disappointing. As long as there's still enough ways to get my 10k points every month for Gamepass I'm not to bothered but certainly not a fan of the changes they've made to rewards recently.
What did you get your 2.5k points for, @Widey85? And what is the 'streak' that others are speaking of?
@Fiendish-Beaver Every 10 weeks of Xbox weekly tasks - the big one as you go into the Rewards app on Xbox.
For example this week was view the deals, open the Reward app three different days and earn 200 points in any way (last week the third one was search on Bing for 3 days).
You'd get like 250 points at 3 weeks of completing the tasks without missing a week, 500 at 5 weeks then 2.5k every 10 weeks you kept the streak going by completing the weekly tasks without missing a week
Having joined the Xbox gang last September I was incredibly surprised by how generous the programme is. That said, if they carry on going like this they'll render the programme useless and that would be disappointing to say the least. We'll see I guess, it's reasonable to restructure and reduce some rewards, but I feel it would be very clumsy business to give that much and suddenly cut it down so much.
Thank you for the detailed response, @Widey85. I appear to have missed the boat with this one, as until this article, I was unaware it even existed. Oh well, I guess I cannot miss what I never had...
My search points were accumulating but not showing up on the app and the boxes you have to click on to enter the search bar.
I basically received the same message saying it's OK, stuffs being changed.
Very vague, I just wish they would give us a heads up so we know what's going on.
They must get so many messages from peeps thinking something is wrong, which is just a waste of everyone's time, it could save a lot of hassle if we were kept in the loop.
@Widey85 I'm two weeks away from my next 2,500 streak bonus.. 😧
@Eejay Ouch fingers crossed it'll hang around long enough!
@Fiendish-Beaver No problem, and hopefully they'll carry it on in the new Rewards tabs, even if they end up reducing it a bit...
This has probably been the most generous reward scheme i have been a part of. Ive redeemed so many £5, £10, £25 giftcards it’s crazy. You also get more points back when you use them.
So yea. This sucks a lot.
@Kaloudz Well you see that's the thing Phil likes to group everything together with the "ecosystem" buzzword to make things sound better then they are but i wouldn't be shocked if parent MS are wondering why they're even bothering having a games console if the money is only coming from PC and Gamepass (what hasn't seen growth). From the sound of things MS is starting to clamp down on Phil's free reign hence the price increase for console and games, Rewards being gutted, Gamepass $1 sub offer being nerfed, Gold free games being dropped (less value for Ultimate subs) and so on.
It was great while it lasted but I blame the gready @#£%'s who have 10 accounts and abuse the hell out of it.
"This is why we can't have nice thing's", springs to mind.
I love how they talk about putting all the rewards in one central area and don't mention that all the rewards in that central area require a gamepass subscription to get any points
Microsoft Points have been absurdly wonky lately and they got rid of a lot of things like being able to complete quests through streaming, so I’m not surprised they might be.
@Phantasystar77 you need an incentive to play games?
Personally never bothered with rewards. I turn in the quests I get from naturally playing whatever I'm playing, but loading up a game or logging onto search in Bing or whatever hoops just seems like I'm doing work. I don't play on my Xbox to work. So I'm quite glad they're killing it.
@Phantasystar77 huh, the more you know.
Don't think I've even had anything near to half a mil up to now lol
I'll go ahead and assume it's over with. Meh
@K1LLEGAL rewards is wildly lucrative. I game across all platforms, but I only buy on Xbox is possible, since I can do it using points. I haven't h
HAD to pay for a game in years aside from Nintendo *****. Even with the obviously disappointing changes lately, the system is still amazing compared to anything that any other platform offers
@shoeses Exactly my thoughts. Core will be the way to go.
Everyone should see this coming the moment they got rid of Live and forced game pass down our throats.
Was awesome buying a year of Live for $40 or $50 on a card to redeem to save few dollars with that bulk year purchase. Have they done that for game pass. NO!!!!!!! There should be an option to buy core or ultimate for say $100. I'd keep ultimate then. But not now after Rewards going away.
Just no excuse not to offer a year deal at discount. None!
Wheree the rewards hub? 😅🤣
Mad negativity on here though yes it's getting took away but the amount of points ya could get was insane tbh n couldn't complain for basically free stuff and gamepass 🤣 but now they taking a little bonus away people basically crying saying I'm leaving 🤣🤣🤣
This is no surprise, i've been saying for a year that they have been slowly nerfing rewards, and you only do that for a reason. If you took it all away at once gamers would be up in arms, but slowly wean them off and it's more palatable.
To be fair it always felt like a "too good to believe" offer, and those never last, I've literally had several hundred pounds off Microsoft stuff for minimal effort, while yes Microsoft gets something in return, I don't think enough to offset that, these offers are usually to get users to use their products and services long term, Bing, Xbox etc. and that isn't working, continuing doesn't seem like a strong business strategy long term.
So not surprising but always a shame when it goes.
Awesome while it lasted and still much better value than anything on PS and Switch. No stingy stars and coins, no years waiting for first-party games to join the subscription and no renting 40-year-old ROMs, plus free cloud saves and cross-buy.
@Sifi You haven't really countered me you just reek of copium and fanboy. I'm not talking about Sony or Nintendo here nor i have mentioned them but as always someone on here has to play ultra defensive when someone dares mention fault with MS and Xbox. Fact is what Xbox offers this year in benefits and value is less then last year.
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