Microsoft Rewards Is Incredible On Xbox, But Only In Certain Regions

We're known to wax lyrical about Microsoft Rewards here at Pure Xbox, and for good reason. The program allows you to rack up an amazing amount of Xbox credit (or anything else you want) for completing Bing searches, earning achievements, completing Xbox Game Pass Quests and much more, so it's pretty much a no-brainer in our view.

There's one big caveat with that though — it all depends where you live. For now, Microsoft Rewards is only available in around 20 countries, and beyond that, there are also issues with prizes from MS Rewards being region-locked even if they're visible. Windows Central's Jez Corden highlighted this recently, with many disgruntled responses:

"Still not in Austria. And we are linked to @XboxDACH which is Germany, Austria and Swiss. We get all the cool promotions and see the reward quests and challenges they always get, but can’t access to it."

"The stupid thing is that MS Rewards balance in the Game Pass app is still shown in countries that can't use it. The UI element is visible but if you click on it, it will give you an error. Lack of attention to details in some MS products drives me crazy."

There are some strange rules/regulations on non-cashback based rewards programs. With points & other non tangible items being non transferable, or not having a cash value to exchange for, are some of the problems my former employer ran into before starting its loyalty program.

We've constantly been hearing from Pure Xbox members over the past couple of years that certain Microsoft Rewards punch cards, promotions and sweepstakes aren't available in their region, which is a huge shame.

Hopefully Microsoft will be able to bring the feature to more regions over the next few years, but it looks like there are quite a few hurdles in place that could prevent it, so we'll have to wait and see what the future holds.

Are you affected by region-specific Microsoft Rewards issues? Tell us in the comments.