If you turn on your Xbox 360 today, you should have an update waiting for you. This update won’t add new apps or change the design of the dashboard, but it will mark the end of a long reviled feature: Microsoft Points. Following the update, all pricing will be listed under real dollar values, and any existing MS points you currently have will be translated back into dollars.
Like arcade tokens of old that force you to purchase blocks of proprietary money that you can’t use anywhere else, Microsoft points have long left people to wonder why they exist. Even Microsoft’s own Windows 8 did away with them last year, and yet strangely they stubbornly continued on the Xbox 360.
Earlier this month Microsoft confirmed that the points were going away. At the time it didn’t have a specific date as to when, just that it would happen with the next update. Once you fire up your console and download the short update, if you attempt to purchase something any MS points will then be converted, and you will receive an email from Microsoft explaining the switch. Any cards you purchase with an MS point value instead of cash will automatically be converted as well.
