Let's talk about Microsoft Rewards, eh? Back in June, we published an article about how you could use Microsoft Rewards to "reduce the price" of GTA 6, and that's exactly what I've been trying to do ever since on my Xbox account.

We're two months on from that article, and I'm now halfway towards getting GTA 6 for free on Xbox. I already had a £20 Xbox Gift Card sitting on my account from a gift earlier in the year, and I've just redeemed another £25 Xbox GIft Card from the Microsoft Rewards points I've managed to accumulate in recent weeks. The Ultimate Edition is what I'm going for at £89.99, so I'm at the exact midpoint for what I need as things stand.

I've genuinely had a good time getting back into the routine of Microsoft Rewards in recent weeks as well. The new system that's been rolling out around the world has attracted some criticism, mainly because it's totally different to the old one and quite confusing at first glance, but once you get a bit of momentum, it's easy enough to follow along with.

For what it's worth, I updated our 10,000 points guide based on the new Microsoft Rewards system recently. The 10,000 points thing is very much a minimum amount that you can expect if you're an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate member doing all the right things on a monthly basis, and I've personally been getting closer to 15-20k since I started actively saving up for GTA 6.

There are a few issues that have cropped up along the way through. Here are a just few:

1. Some Xbox Gift Cards Have A Time Limit Attached To Them

You know when Xbox sometimes gives away free credit to celebrate various sales promotions? I had some of that sitting in my account that I'd been planning to use for GTA 6, but upon checking it a few months ago, I noticed that the credit had an expiry date of early August. As a result, I ended up having to spend it on something else (OlliOlli World, if you want to know!) before it just got taken away from me entirely.

When you redeem an Xbox Gift Card using Microsoft Rewards, it also tells you the same thing - specifically that you've got 90 days to spend that credit. I ended up waiting until after August 19th (three months before the release of GTA 6) to redeem my £25 Xbox Gift Card as a result, but if I hadn't read the fineprint, I would have been a bit stuck.

2. The Bing Star Bonus Can Be Confusing

There's this new initiative in the Microsoft Rewards overhaul called the Bing Star bonus, and until recently, I couldn't understand how it worked. I was doing all my daily searches, completing every task I could think of, and yet the Bing Star bonus was telling me I'd only get 60 points out of a possible 2,100 at the end of the month.

"Earn up to 2,100 bonus points each month when you use Bing for genuine searches and follow our guidelines."

After doing a bit of research, I believe the issue is that I'm just choosing the suggested search terms on the Microsoft Rewards Bing mobile app, rather than actually searching for things that I'm specifically interested in (all at once as well, rather than spreading them out across multiple hours). Is it worth typing in all sorts of "genuine" terms for an extra 2,000 points per-month rather than using the suggestions? I haven't decided yet, but hopefully it'll fix the problem if I do.

3. Being Away From Home Limits Your Potential Earnings

These days, Microsoft Rewards is built around consistency more than ever before. The vast majority of tasks are centred around doing them every single day, both in terms of the browser-based searches as well as the Xbox-specific tasks such as playing Game Pass titles and logging into the Xbox mobile app.

Not only that, but you need multiple devices to complete them all as well. You get rewarded for playing on console, doing specific tasks on mobile, playing on PC, reading news stories on mobile... there's a fair amount of variation. I was away on holiday recently and simply couldn't keep up with it, accepting that I could only do the mobile-based tasks, while the rewards I got for "playing" Game Pass titles had to come from using Xbox Cloud Gaming instead. I totally gave up on the console and PC ones (didn't take my ROG Xbox Ally X with me, doh!).

4. There Are Too Many Big Games Coming Out Before GTA 6!

I'm really, really tempted to spend these points before GTA 6 comes out. September and October are looking absolutely stacked for new releases, with major new games including Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Control Resonant, Halloween, EA Sports FC 27, Rayman Legends Retold, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Toy Story Retro Roundup, Minecraft Dungeons 2 and Gears of War: E-Day. Phew!

It's a massive test of patience to try and avoid spending free Xbox credit when you know you have it, and I can't confirm I'll be able to resist. I'm particularly interested in Star Wars: Galactic Racer and can already basically get that game for free, so let's see what happens when October rolls around - maybe I'll end up spending the cash!

Anyway, as much as I enjoy waxing lyrical about what's going on in my world of Microsoft Rewards, the main purpose of this article is to find out more about your habits - how you're getting on, how many points you have right now, and whether you're saving up for GTA 6 or perhaps something else you've got your eye on.

We're obviously running out of time when it comes to GTA 6 now, and racking up another £50 (or however much you need) might not be possible before the release on November 19th, but it's certainly going to help bring the cost down on launch day. That goes for anything you might want to buy on Xbox, so I personally think Microsoft Rewards is well worth getting into if you haven't already, even if it's just to save up for the next Xbox Project Helix console!

How are you getting on with Microsoft Rewards? Let us know down in the comments below.