With the GTA 6 price set at an $80 baseline and jumping to $100 for the expanded Ultimate Edition, some especially patient and dedicated Xbox players have resorted to dark arts in order to save money on Rockstar's long-awaited open-world epic: Microsoft Reward points.
As PC Gamer spotted, one GTA 6 hopeful cashed in years of waiting by pre-ordering the GTA 6 Ultimate Edition through the power of Microsoft points, earned through the company's bizarre rewards program.
Reddit user CarolinaKing704 "pre-ordered 5 months early" after stockpiling Microsoft points, saying, "I've been waiting for [this] moment for almost 3 years." Ironically, GTA 6's repeated delays helped fans hoping to pay off the game purely through such points, as it gave them more time to save up. The GTA 6 Ultimate Edition will run you a whopping 100,000 points.
A screenshotted purchase shared by another Reddit user sees Microsoft user HugoWheynow say, "Thank you Rockstar for all the delays, which allowed me to have all these extra months to save my Microsoft Points."
This rewards program has been around for a while, and folks have used it to buy games before. In replies to CarolinaKing704, other users say they've got their own point fortunes to spend, but caution folks to make sure they only use points for payment, rather than splitting costs between payment methods, to avoid a potential repeat charge come launch day. As CarolinaKing704 says in a reply: "They charge you immediately if you use your Microsoft funds to pre-order."
Microsoft Rewards is pretty strange as loyalty programs go. On top of gaining points from purchases, like buying and playing games on Xbox, you can also earn points just by using Bing, Microsoft's widely unloved search engine. There's a whole array of mobile game-like tasks that you can complete for points, many of them imploring users to "search on Bing," "download the Bing app," or get a friend to use Bing because "true friends use Bing together," don't you know.
When you first create your account, you're also prompted to pin the rewards program to your taskbar for a whopping 50 points. Microsoft really wants people to use its in-house tools and programs, and it's willing to invent and dole out an imaginary currency to make it happen. Microsoft also wants you to use that currency quickly, so keep a close watch on expiration dates or inactive periods, especially for gift cards purchased with points.
Various "levels" of Microsoft Rewards feature different caps and payouts, with the max, "Level 2 + Xbox Game Pass Ultimate," granting 20 points per dollar spent on qualifying purchases in the Microsoft Store, and up to 250 points per day just through Bing searches (five points per search, with 150 points coming from PC and 100 from mobile use).
True min-maxers may use discounted or complementary Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions as a means to access the highest tier of reward points, and some people have even set up scripts to run Bing searches for them (which may, some users admit, get you flagged for exploits). Of course, this program does require using Bing if you want to really push it, but just playing games and occasionally keeping tabs on your account can add up in the long run.
