Say goodbye to the space bucks: Microsoft has officially retired their long-standing (and infamous) Microsoft Points system with a newly revamped Xbox Live Rewards that will offer reward incentives for quite a few activities and achievements across Xbox Live.

With a large amount of activities that offer rewards and benefits to Xbox Live Rewards members, the biggest change to the service is obviously the retirement of Microsoft Points (and their often confusing conversion rate between MSP and actual dollars). Instead, Xbox Live is bringing in Credits, where 1,000 Credits will equal $1 US. After signing up with the Xbox Live Rewards service, users will begin to receive Credit rewards for a selection of different offers across Xbox Live, such as watching/purchasing new games or TV and movies, taking monthly surveys, renewing an Xbox Live Gold membership, referring friends, and for even playing a new game or earning achievements.

After an Xbox Live Rewards member collects at least 5,000 credits ($5), the Credits are then converted into their equivalent actual currency value and deposited into that user's Xbox Live account, which can then be used for purchasing games or other content in the Xbox Games Store. While the program itself features many of the same elements from the previous incarnation of Xbox Live Rewards, the jump to Credits should at least hopefully make a LITTLE bit more sense, this time around.

masthead