I’d like to target 8.1 so I can have more robust consumable in-app-purchases… but I’m worried about how many people will not see my game in the store, or not be able to use it, because they haven’t upgraded to 8.1 yet.
Does anyone have any data on this? What % of people haven’t upgraded?
What are others doing for consumable IAPs if targeting 8.0? I’ve read the workaround here:
You can create two copies of your game - one for Windows 8 and one for 8.1 and upload separate packages. Then if you do have issues with 8.0 it will only affect users on 8.0 (users on 8.1 will get the 8.1 version automatically).
Of course building for 8.0 only will work for all users, but you may have the issues you mentioned.
Unity now makes it easier with 8.1 to target a universal app (so you don’t need to create a phone version separately). That’s a good reason to target 8.1.
That thread you linked to is very old (it is from BEFORE the Windows Store was opened). Are you sure you need to workaround consumable in-app purchases? I’ve never used them, but I thought they worked just fine.
I think the workaround is still required for 8.0, because neither of these functions seem to be available:
This one is Windows Phone 8.0 only:
This one is Windows 8.1 only:
So there is no way to let the user purchase the same item again, without using the workaround (having it expire after 1 day).
My game offers upgrades that you purchase with coins that you can earn in game, or purchase with real money.. same as 1,000s of other games. I was trying to keep the design simple, and just save info on local device, since I’ve read it isn’t that uncommon that you lose your consumables if you reinstall an app. I’m not that worried about people that will hack files to get free stuff, my feeling is those people would not pay anyway, if they couldn’t hack, so either way no revenue loss (maybe a small %). The more I think about it, I’m not happy with people losing items if they reinstall, and I think I want items to be shared across multiple devices, so maybe I do need to go the extra mile and sync data with my web server.
You could try storing in the app’s roaming storage (e.g. what they bought and when), and this info will sync with all their Windows devices (including phones, tablets, and PCs). A bit of logic should let you determine what they own and what they have consumed. This should work just like using your own server.
You might be better off targeting 8.1 for simplicity. Even though 1/3 of users are still on 8.0 you’ll probably find that this will change even more over time, and Windows 10 will be 100% backwards compatible, and I’d expect the adoption of Windows 10 to be a lot faster than Windows 8.x.