Rewards

Xbox Live Rewards is a cool little service provided by Microsoft to Xbox Live users, allowing them to earn small amounts of money based on what they've bought and played via the Xbox Live service. Most people will pick up a couple of bucks every now and then from the service if they're lucky, but it seems that Microsoft is pushing the boat out with it a little now, possibly with a view to expanding it permanently.

On Tuesday, certain "VIP" users were offered the ability to jump in and claim physical items. Only "a few hundred" users were invited to a page that contained action figures, posters, books, Blu-rays, controllers, and more. Some of the items were even signed!

The rules stated that VIPs were eligible to claim one item, which would be shipped within 2 to 3 weeks. The claim page was at the same address as the standard Xbox Live Rewards page, and once an item was chosen by the user, it returned to the standard page.

So, what could this mean for the service, going forward? Could this be something that we'll see more of at E3? It sure would be nice to get a Club Nintendo-style reward system where gamers could pick up physical items on a more regular basis for their Xbox exploits...

[source rewards.xbox.com]