Buying universal apps

[drlacus]

Hi! I think I don't understand this universal app concept. The codebase is similar for these apps. The pricing was somewhat unified, but what is bugging me is what do you actually own? I bought Halo:Spartan on WP, but the updated store in Windows 8.1 still asks me to pay for it. I have checked the articles around this issue and found that Daniel wrote this:

?Install across devices ? Developers can let users download/buy an app on one platform and install it across their devices, without re-purchasing

Several users wrote that they were able to install eg. Halo:Spartan without buying it again on Windows. For this reason I have contacted XboxSupport on twitter yesterday and they told me the following:

@XboxSupport1 Hi! I bought Halo:Spartan for my phone, but the windows 8.1 store still asks me to pay for it. Isn't it a universal app?
@drlacus You're going to want to purchase it for your Windows 8 machine as well ^NX
@XboxSupport1 People told me they could download it since they have purchased it and this universal app thing is a pay once get it everywhere
@drlacus That would not be correct. It would need to be purchased for the device you want to play it on. ^PS

So what is correct and what is not? Please enlighten me :amaze:

 

[kishorekumar_a]

AFAIK, Universal apps are still a ongoing implementation. The target should be for unified purchase across Windows Stores. However for now, It is not yet available. The current features of Universal apps are Unified Codebase, Syncronisation, Availability and maybe some other minor ones. The first target was to unify the codebase since that is very important for simplifying development of apps or games on both platforms.

However even after full implementation, I suspect, the ability for unified purchase across Windows Stores will be left in the hands of the developers, i.e., Supplier will be able to Enable/Disable unified purchase option.