Xbox One’s Road To Success: New Xbox Live Rewards Program and Staggering Sales In China

IN PHOTO: The Gamescom convention, Europe's largest video games trade fair, is open to the public from August 14 to 17. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

Microsoft is steadily changing the Xbox One to become the next-gen console that everyone wants to have. In line with this, Microsoft has made some changes for its Xbox Live Rewards programs, some of which took effect over the weekend.

Now there may be more ways for consumers to get rewards for using the Xbox One. A good example of this, as reported by Game Informer, is how one member will be ranked by stars to see their standing in an overall rating board.

This is good news for those who spend a lot on their Xbox One consoles because a $150 annual balance already earns a member one star while succeeding purchases earn more stars. Those who are members of the Xbox Live Gold also get their stars doubled. The reward here is consumers get 10% off on purchases made on the Xbox Live Store, and they can choose to get it through games, DLC or other video content.

Now there are even more options when it comes to earning credits. One of them runs until Nov. 30, where members can earn as much as 20,000 reward credits or $20 for purchasing three games on demand.

Another way that the Xbox One is expanding is in line with its widening reach into Chinese territory. As far as the console wars between the PS4 and Xbox One goes, the Xbox One always seems to come after the PS4 in terms of sales. But now it may be turning around as Microsoft starts tapping into the China market.

After a long ban for game consoles, China has finally opened its doors in time with the release of the next-gen consoles. According to DualShockers, in the two weeks that the Xbox One had been available for preorders, it has already hit 15,617 bookings. The number comes from Suning, an online retailer that publishes its preorder numbers. Surprisingly, of the 15,617 preoders, 12,810 have been made for the Xbox One with Kinect while the rest was for the Kinect-less version.

Apart from the potential popularity of the Kinect in China, the source also mentioned that Suning only holds 2% of the preorders in China, so there may be bigger success in terms of Chinese sales for the Xbox One.