The pricing of the new installment of Grand Theft Auto is causing some controversy, along with the fact that you won't be able to buy GTA 6 as physical media. Nevertheless, a small group of gamers are celebrating that they paid nothing to preorder what is one of the most anticipated games of the decade.
Wild from r/GTA6
It's been 12 years since GTA V. Rockstar's sequel was slated for a Fall 2025 release but the date was pushed back to allow more time for bug fixing and optimisation. Those extra months were long enough to allow some fans to be able to buy the game for free for Xbox Series X/S from the Microsoft store.
Several fans have been sharing how they amassed a whopping 98,000 Microsoft Points to be able to pre-order the Ultimate Edition of the game, which retails for $99.99 in the US). To accumulate points, they used Microsoft's rewards system consistently over months and even years, slowly earning points by using Bing for their searches
"Thanks, Rockstar, for all the delays, as these extra months allowed me to save up my Microsoft Points," one person writes.
Thank you, Microsoft Rewards. 😎 from r/MicrosoftRewards
For some context on the amount of time and work involved, bear in mind that the maximum number of points you can typically earn in a month is between 10,000 and 14,000 without the Xbox Game Pass. With the Game Pass, the number can exceed 20,000.
But if you only use Bing for searches, which is what some of those ordering GTA 6 claim to have done, the amount of points you can claim is limited to just around 5,000 per month. To earn more than that, you would need to do things like use the Bing app on your phone, play Xbox Game Pass games, send Bing recommendations to your friends, and complete specific tasks in the "More activities" category.
Obviously, it's too late to start saving now to get GTA 6 for free in time for the 19 November release by just using Bing, but, hey, you can certainly start saving those points for GTA 7.
