When Rockstar announced the price of GTA 6 — $80 for the standard edition and $100 for the Ultimate Edition — social media filled with outrage. But a few Xbox players on Reddit responded with screenshots of receipts showing zero amount due.
How it works
Microsoft Rewards is a free loyalty program built into the company's ecosystem. Points are earned through Bing searches, using the Edge browser, daily tasks on the Rewards dashboard, purchases in the Microsoft Store and Xbox, and quests in games through Game Pass. Accumulated points are converted into Microsoft gift cards, which can be used to pay for anything in the store — including game pre-orders.
To redeem the Ultimate Edition, exactly 100,000 points are needed. According to PC Gamer, with a systematic approach — daily searches, quizzes, Edge activity — it's realistic to earn up to 10,000 points per month. That means the theoretical minimum is about 10 months of disciplined use of Microsoft services.
Reddit heroes and bitter irony
User CarolinaKing704 wrote that he had been waiting for this moment for almost three years and placed a pre-order five months before release. Another player, HugoWheynow, put it more precisely:
«Thanks Rockstar for all the delays that allowed me to have enough points»
HugoWheynow, Reddit
This is not a joke, but math: each delay in GTA 6's release gave Microsoft Rewards fans additional months to accumulate points. Delays that frustrated millions became converted time for some players.
What it really costs
The program is free, but not costless. 100,000 points represent hundreds of hours of Bing searches, daily task clicks, and consciously switching from Google to a less convenient browser. One player calculated that he spent seven months on deliberate activity to achieve this. Whether this is «free» depends on how you value your own time.
There's also a technical nuance: if a pre-order is fully paid with points or Microsoft account credit, the transaction is processed as an immediate deduction rather than a classic pre-order with payment on release day. That means the money (or rather, points) goes out immediately.
Broader context
The GTA 6 case is not the first, but it's the loudest for Microsoft Rewards: the game has become the most expensive «prize» that players are massively trying to obtain through the program. It's also an indirect signal for Microsoft itself: loyalty to the ecosystem has real monetary value, and gamers have noticed this.
If Rockstar delays the release again — the date is currently set for 2025 — the number of players with zero-dollar receipts will only increase. The real question is: will Microsoft Rewards maintain its current points exchange rate when redemption demand spikes sharply ahead of one of the biggest releases in gaming history?
