Choosing the right product type

It's important to choose the right product type for monetization features you're offering. All products start with configuration in Partner Center, where the following types are supported:

Type	Summary	Examples
Bundles	A single product that includes multiple products for a single price.	Season Pass, Game Compilation, Pre-order, etc.
Consumables	Micro-transaction based products that can be repurchased.	Premium In-game currency
Durables	Add-on products that are intended to be purchased once.	Expansion packs, pre-order incentive content, etc.
Subscription	A recurring transaction product that can be auto-renewed or canceled.	Publisher or Game specific subscription

This section goes over each and the scenarios where the products are used.

ProductKind index

The following table provides an index of the ProductKind value of each product type discussed in this article. The ProductKind is used when querying the available products and the users entitlements with the XStore API's or Managing products from your services.

Product type	ProductKind value
Base Game	`Game`
Game Bundle	`Game`
Add-on Bundle	`Durable`
Season Pass	`Durable`
Store-managed Consumable	`Consumable`
Developer-managed Consumable	`UnmanagedConsumable`
Durable with a package	`Durable`
Durable without a package	`Durable`
Store-managed Subscription	`Pass`
Add-on Subscription	`Durable`

Bundles

There are three different bundle product types within the Microsoft Store that have different functionality and uses:

Type	Can add to	Can be empty	Can include game
Game Bundle	Yes	No	Yes
Add-on Bundle	Yes	No	No
Season Pass	Yes	Yes	No

Note

After a bundle is published to RETAIL, included products can't be removed from the bundle.

For more information, see Bundles and Season Passes.

Game Bundle

Contains a base game bundled with one or more add-ons or other games as different editions or to offer multiple games as a compilation. Products can be added to a bundle after publish, but not removed. Game bundles are also used to define compilation discs, which include one or more games and their associated DLC.

This product type isn't an add-on, but instead it's created by selecting 'Create a new bundle' from the publisher's products Overview page in Partner Center.

For more information, see Using a Game Bundle with your game

Add-on bundle

Includes multiple released add-on products associated with a single title. Add-on bundles are good options for providing the best content of your title at a discounted price for new users, for example, after a free-play weekend.

Season Pass

A special case of an add-on bundle that contains products not yet released and are added to the bundle later. Upon release, at least one product is required to be included in the Season Pass however. Note, it isn't necessary to brand a Season Pass product with "Season Pass" in the name. More than one Season Pass can be offered per-game as well. For more examples and information, see Using a Season Pass within your game.

Consumables

Consumable products are intended to provide temporary or limited use items in-game that the user can then repurchase and use. Most commonly an in-game premium currency is implemented through consumable products. Consumables are considered single-user purchases not shared through game licensing or sharing policies. There are two consumable product types in the Microsoft Store:

Type	Summary	Examples
Store-managed Consumable	Can be purchased multiple times before being fulfilled, balance can be tracked through Microsoft Store or your own custom service.	Most in-game currencies and consumable products are configured as this type.
Developer-managed Consumable	Can only be purchased again after the previous purchase is fulfilled to the Microsoft Store.	Consumable that is only intended to be purchased once such as an introductory in-game currency pack.

The recommendation for games is to use Microsoft Store-managed Consumables and configure each consumable tier or offering as its own productID to allow better flexibility and management. For more information, see Consumable-based ecosystems.

Microsoft Store-managed Consumable

This type of consumable is associated with a quantity granted to the user on purchase that is added to their remaining balance of that consumable to use in-game that is tracked with the Store APIs. After the game reports an amount as fulfilled or consumed in-game, the service deducts that amount from the user's remaining balance on their Microsoft account. The quantity granted on purchase is configured in the product setup. Microsoft Store-managed consumables can be purchased repeatedly without the product being reported as fulfilled or consumed.

The consumable balance can be queried and consumed using the XStore APIs or calls to the Microsoft Collections service.

For best practices and recommendations, see Managing consumables.

This product type is also referenced as a "managed consumable" in some documentation. Even though this consumable is titled "Store-managed," it can be fully consumed whenever the user's balance is greater than 0 and the corresponding in-game currency managed by your own services for the user. For more information, see Managing consumable products from your service.

Developer-managed Consumable

The other type of consumable, Developer-managed is a product type that can only be purchased a single time before being fulfilled (that is, consumed) by the client, making it purchasable again. This fulfillment operation is what the game would use to assign a reward tracked by the game.

One useful scenario is to offer a single-purchase consumable that represents a one-time reward that can't be replenished. Simply don't fulfill the consumable and it can't be purchased after the initial purchase. In contrast to a durable that needs to adhere to sharing behavior where consumables are per-user.

Also known as "unmanaged consumable."

Durables

A Durable is intended for single-purchase items such as expansions, map packs, or other forms of downloadable content. A Durable follows the Product sharing model for games and can be enabled for other accounts on the device.

There are two types of durable products you can configure in Partner Center:

Durable with a package
Durable without a package (also known as Durable add-ons)

Durable with a package

Commonly used for offering additional content that isn't part of the base game experience, such as narrative chapters, expansion modes, vehicles, environments, and character assets. After purchase, download and installation of the package will be required to properly license and mount the content.

Just like with the base game, a package for each gaming device supported needs to be created and submitted for each durable with package product.

The game must support being able to purchase the durable products and react to the installation of the new content without needing to restart the game. Specific APIs need to be called first to acquire a license for the package and then mount it for use.

If you plan to split up your game's content into separate durable packages for optional install and space saving purposes, consider using the Features aspect of Intelligent Delivery instead.

Also known as "optional packages."

Durable without a package

Extra purchasable content that is included within the base game package to support online scenarios or design of the game. A Durable type add-on can be more suitable here as no package creation and management is necessary for both the developer and consumer.

Similar to a durable with a package, this type still provides a license that can be validated at runtime according to the Product sharing model for games. You must verify the license through the XStore APIs of these products to ensure access should be granted, especially when used with disc based games.

A Durable can also be offered with time-limited duration, after which the user will no longer own it and needs to repurchase it.

Subscriptions

A subscription is a product that involves a recurring purchase to remain active. They can be configured with multiple tiers, for example, monthly, yearly, etc. There are two different types of subscription products in the Microsoft Store. Developers need permissions enabled on their Partner Center accounts before being able to configure subscriptions. For help with configuring or with getting access to these product types, work with your Developer Partner Manager or Microsoft contact.

Subscription Type	Description
Store-managed Subscription	Designed to be used for title-specific subscriptions, publisher level subscriptions across multiple titles, and cross-publisher subscriptions (Ex: Game Pass).
Add-on Subscription	Designed to be used only for a single title-specific subscription and is limited in features compared to a Store-managed subscription

Subscription comparison chart

Feature	Store-managed subscription	Add-on subscription
ProductKind value	`Pass`	`Durable`
Store visibility	All public storefronts	In-game UI only
Pricing models	Per-region customization	Single global price
Customer tier switching	Yes	No
Redeem codes and promotions	Yes	No

Feedback

Was this page helpful?

Last updated on 2026-04-22