Xbox Game Pass Quests Are Getting A Big Overhaul For 2025

Happy New Year, @FraserG. Do you happen to know whether the 8 games on Game Pass for 15 minutes can be played on a PC with GPU, or does it have to be on a console? Thanks...

I'll check this out later on my Xbox by the sounds of it I'll be earning more points yaay!

Sure would be nice if the damn thing worked at all. But MS are still flagging my very UK-based ISP as a VPN and blocking me from seeing quests at all.

(Ironically, I can access it through my PC. Because that one actually is behind a VPN. Go figure)

I’ll need time to properly digest these changes, but first impression is that this sounds like quite a chore. Previously you only needed to launch the game for a few seconds to count towards the daily/weekly quests, not play them for 15 whole minutes. Does the electricity cost of running XSX & LG CX for 15 mins exceed the point value? In UK it almost certainly does. Wouldn’t be an issue if they included non Game Pass games too, but I’m playing Nier Automata currently so launching a random Game Pass title for additional 15 mins each evening just for points sound unappealing.

New? I've had these on my Xbox rewards tab for ages. My streak of playing every day only just go broken a few days ago.

Okay, cool. Thank you, @FraserG...

@Cakefish The electricity costs occurred to me as I often leave a game on for 15 mins just to get the weekly bonus (Little Kitty Big city was my third most played game last year for this sole reason)

From everything I could find out, at a standard tariff and assuming a series X is running at maximum wattage it costs roughly 8p per hour to run. So if you are really strict on shutting it off after the 15 minutes and did that 5 times a week it will cost you about £5.30 a year. Without the new streak system that would have netted you between 7500-9000 points per year which is most of the way towards a month of GP which is what I tend to spend my points on. I think it works out good value but ethically it isn’t brilliant for the environment.

*Caveat: I have no real clue about electricity pricing and this is based entirely on google searching and back of a matchbox maths.

Edit: also wanted to add that I too have an LG CX (tv twinsies 🙌) so I turn my Xbox on, load a game and then turn the tv off and the Xbox switches itself off after about 20 minutes…can’t remember the exact time I got it to auto switch off

I always view these things as "I'll get them if I'm playing that many days anyway, but I'm not chasing them". The 4 and 8 games for 15 mins thing is stupid, but it will increase engagement so I understand it at least.

When I total it up though I earn tonnes more points in bing than on Xbox

Considering there used to be pretty easy quests that didn't require Game Pass and would get you 2000+ points a month without all this streak stuff I'm not really bothering with rewards any more.

I collect points I get from the games I play already, but I'm not going to go about and play random games I'm not interested for 15 minutes.

As someone who doesn't currently have Gamepass, it sounds like the only change is the weekly console bonus going from 250 points a week to 150, which sucks. Pretty clear there is a continued effort to get people to switch to playing on PC from console.

I’ve been collection rewards points since 2015 but with this I’m out, this requires too much time and I just don’t use my Xbox that much anymore, plus it’s clearly designed to boost up console engagement metrics, Bing searches give you way more points and it’s less time consuming.

I used to chase achievements and such for full rewards points but recently stopped and just play what I want, when I want, rather than doing chores for points. I'll plan to keep on with this approach and any points will be a happy bonus to playing fun games on GP. Luke, once Avowed releases, I should get the 5 days 15 minutes without issue.

@GeeEssEff You also have to consider the energy the nice fancy OLED TV takes up, which is actually about the same as the console itself for 55”+ models!

@Cakefish Absolutely but I only turn it on to start the game and then turn the tv off. The game still runs for fifteen minutes even with the tv off. You probably have to disable the settings where your Xbox turns on/off with your tv though.

This is good timing as me and the wife both do Microsoft Rewards and mine is the only one with a Game Pass account, and last year I didn't earn much more than a non Game Pass account. I've missed the bigger bounes with the play a console/PC for 15min, my PC not the best but I could play Gear 5 five to earn it.

More ways to earn points is always welcome. Can't wait to see these roll out.

As a few others have stated, I'll play the games I want to play, but won't chase points just because.
It's the same with PlayStation Stars.

@Th3_Highlander nintendo switch counts as pc of you have one. I just let ori sit for 15 minutes handheld while doing the rest of the rewards stuff on TV.

I need someone to do the math. Are we actually getting more points this way or is this another nerf?

I’ll have to remember to just leave a Gamepass game running for 15 mins even if I’m not trying to play it per se for these rewards…I’ll actually prob set a phone reminder daily to do it so I don’t forget since there is a streak multiplier involved and I’ll inevitably forget one day otherwise lol

15 min each is too long, a lot of the times I'll find out if I like or dislike the game much faster than this. Just an artifact barrier to help them hit some KPI for giving out free money. MS Rewards are pretty cool though so not entirely lost.

This essentially wipes out all of their energy saving credibility

Much the same as @RentedPanda here. If everything falls into place, like when I was playing Vampire Survivors which pops achievements like they're going out of fashion, it's a nice bonus for taking the time to launch the rewards app and make the claim. Also nice to play a variety of games, and try something I normally wouldn't buy, as they intend us to do. I usually end up hoarding my points and wait for the rare 3 months of Ultimate for 27k points type of deal.
However, when I recently found myself sitting there calculating if it was indeed a mathematical possibility to get the 1000 point monthly reward over the remaining two weeks or so, which isn't as easy as it sounds because of their shenanigans, I realised the whole rigmarole could suck the fun out of the room if I let it.
So many times I've gotten a head start on the weekly and monthly goals in the first week of the month, only for the in-progress rewards to inexplicably vanish - "That's all we've got for now" - only to reappear with 3½ weeks to go, turning it into a mission redeemable only by those who play GamePass games and crack achievements in them on a daily basis.
I switch on the Xbox to have fun. If they're going to jump on the ens%!tification bandwagon I'll just feign surprise and leave them to it. Nowadays I'd rather just play Robocop or Project Cars 2 or something I've been patient enough to wait for and picked up at a deep discount.
They have left me one carrot worth chasing - the new weekly streak - all going well I usually play for at least half an hour, five days a week.

Well the new quests are not working for me atm. Got the 10 points for playing a game on console for 15 minutes but it didn't work for the quest, despite being a gamepass game. Are the quests working for anyone else?

i just turn on my series s, load doom e1m1 and have a 15 shutdown timer then go do something else like make tea. Probably gonna be better than trying to get easy trophies every day. Never really considered it a grind as such as i usually enjoyed what i was playing. But adult me has to adult sadly.... leaves less time for fun.

@GeeEssEff I saw a tip on Reddit where mobile cloud streaming actually works for the quests. I managed to confirm this on my iPhone today! So that eliminates 99% of the energy costs and I’ll try to maintain the streaks that way going forwards.

@Cakefish Good spot mate! Will bear this in mind thank you