How to implement consumable products in windows store app?

Question

Is it possible to sell consumable products via in-app purchase?

Answer 1

This looks to be fixed in Windows 8.1. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/bg182887.aspx#two

Answer 2

Just to add my 2 cents to the answers:

1. There is a limit on the number of IAPs on Windows 8, and it is 200 (but has been removed in Windows 8.1). This might seem like plenty, but an app can easily have 10 or 20 different IAPs, which divides that number down to 10 purchases in 24h, which seems like a limit some users could very likely hit soon. To add two more complex ideas of a solution to this:

   • You could use analytics to get the maximum number of each in-app item users purchased in a 24h window and adjust the number of each IAP products per in-app item accordingly, i.e. assign more IAP products to most used in-app items, and less to items that are not purchased so many times in 24h.
   • You could have IAP products assigned to price tiers, i.e. define 50 products for $1.49 priced in-app items, 25 for $1.99 and so on..
     
     

2. For completeness, I'd like to quote @Chris Bowen's link to the workaround debate:

If the games are being XBL enabled they will have to use the built-in Consumables solution.

The XBox Live, though, in my experience, is a very closed program.