Keep an eye on those Microsoft Points you’ve been saving for a rainy day, because they have a countdown on them now.
One of the changes to Xbox Live coming along with the Xbox One is a change from Microsoft Points to real money currency. This was a change a long time coming and welcomed by everyone but the guy that thought up Microsoft Points. Microsoft released an FAQ explaining the transition and how it’ll happen, revealing some good and bad surprises.
When the conversion goes through this fall, your current Microsoft Points will be converted to equal or greater amounts of your region’s currency. No lost money there. The Microsoft Point cards floating around will be “redeemable on your console and on Xbox.com throughout 2014 and for a limited time thereafter but will be discontinued after the launch of Xbox Gift Cards this fall,” according to the FAQ.
The next part is less cool and infinitely more important:
Please note that any funds we deposit into your account at the time of the transition will expire one year from the deposit date.
According to this document, any points sitting in your account right now will have a one year lifespan left after the point of conversion. If you have Microsoft Point cards sitting around, probably sit on them, as they will be redeemable. After sitting for a good half an hour trying to come up with reasons for this decision, I can’t think of a thing. There’s no reason to have the points already sitting there expire. It takes money away from paying customers and doing otherwise would cost Microsoft no real money.
