A few months ago we reported that Microsoft was planning to reward Xbox players according to their in-game achievements. This week, the program finally kicked in.
The rewards are not really that impressive, but this should be remedied by the fact that they are being offered for something you already do for free. Under the program, Xbox LIVE Gold users who earn 3,000 to 9,999 Gamerscore will get a "special gift" priced around $0.25 during their birthday month. Gamerscores between 10,000 and 24,999 get their owners a 1% rebate on Xbox LIVE Marketplace purchases. The rebate is doubled to 2% for users who accumulate 25,000 or more Gamerscore.
According to the Xbox game development guidelines, each Xbox game should offer up to 1,000 Gamerscore in the main game and up to 750G in DLC. Xbox Live Arcade games can offer 200G in the main game and 50G in DLC.
If you are an Xbox LIVE Gold subscriber, you can activate your Xbox LIVE rewards scheme here.