According to a report on Joystiq, Xbox Live Rewards will start benefiting players who have a high Gamerscore. If you have at least 25,000 score, you'll get 2% back of your purchases on Xbox Live in the form of Microsoft points. Not a bad deal, huh? Be awesome at video games, pay less for them–well, if you're buying them in high volumes, I suppose. This'll be great for anyone that's always trying the latest and greatest thing.
For everyone else, it might take a long while to accrue enough MSP to actually do anything worthwhile. But those aren't the only rewards. Gold members with 10k points get a smaller return, at 1%. Finally, gold members with 3k+ points will get an, uh, gift? On their birthday. Mysterious!
If you want the rewards, you need to make sure you sign up for them. Head on over here to do that! Might as well, no?
Anyway, this reminds me of talk of how Valve was going to reward players on Steam, but people got really angry about that. Perhaps Valve is enticed to make it happen now? I'd love to see more rewards systems like these, they're good incentive to play and buy games.