FAQ: Answers at a Glance
Registration
- $99 per year membership fee. Paid membership enables you to publish and manage applications at Windows Phone Marketplace, and to post to the App Hub forums to get support from the developer community. You can register without paying the membership fee and then post to the App Hub forums, but you won't be able to submit applications to the App Hub.
- $0 membership fee if you're a DreamSpark student
- You must have a Windows Live ID to register. If you don't have one, go to Windows Live and create one.
- If you have a valid registration for Windows Phone Marketplace or a Creators Club Online premium membership, your registration or membership is automatically transferred to App Hub.
Windows Phone
You can register as an individual or under your company's name.
Xbox 360
You can register as an individual.
Submission
Windows Phone
- You must be registered as an App Hub member in order to submit an app for Windows Phone.
- There's no limit on the number of free submissions for paid apps.
- There's a limit of 100 free submissions for free apps; thereafter, there's a fee of $19.99 per submission for free apps.
Xbox 360
- Paid members may submit up to 20 games to Xbox LIVE Indie Games.
- Student members may access XNA Game Studio Connect, but can't make submissions to Xbox LIVE Indie Games.
Certification/Peer Review
Windows Phone
- All applications must pass certification testing before being published to Windows Phone Marketplace.
- You can find the application policies and technical certification requirements in Windows Phone 7 Application Certification Requirements.
- There's no cost for app/game certification or application updates.
Xbox 360
- Xbox 360 games must pass peer review before being published to Xbox LIVE Indie Games.
- You can find peer review guidelines here: Xbox LIVE Indie Games Peer Review Guide.
- There's no cost for peer review.
Pricing
Windows Phone
- The minimum price for selling an application is $0.99 USD and equivalent price points for other currencies.
- The maximum price is $499.99 USD and equivalent price points for other currencies.
- Subscription-based pricing isn't available at this time.
Xbox 360
- Games must be less than 500 MB.
- Can be priced at 80 (for games less than 150 MB), 240, or 400 Microsoft Points.
- You can change the price of your game once every 90 days.
Payments
- All revenue share calculations are done on transactions for which Microsoft was able to collect money.
- You'll be paid 70% of all application sales as your revenue share.
- You'll be responsible for paying all taxes on the payments you receive.
- Payments are made by electronic funds transfer (EFT) to your bank account.
- Registration of your bank account and updates to your account are made through your App Hub profile.
Windows Phone
The collection time varies depending on the payment method. In general, the collection time is:
- 15 to 30 days for credit card billing
- 90 to 120 days for mobile operator billing
Payout will occur once the minimum $200 threshold has been met for applications sold on the Marketplace. If you're a developer, you'll be paid 70% of all application sales minus any sales, use, or VAT/GST taxes collected from purchasers for remittance by Microsoft as your revenue share. Microsoft will total all transactions for your application sales on which we were able to collect money. You're responsible for paying all taxes on the payments you receive.
To set up a payment method, you need to register a bank account. You can update your bank information through your profile.
Xbox 360
In general, payments will be processed:
- Up to 45 days after the quarter ends
- Payment is initiated when the collection total meets or exceeds $150.
- Collection totals are tabulated quarterly.
Application Features and Updates
- You can submit updates to your apps/games at no cost.
- Microsoft pushes a notification automatically to all users who purchased your app/game. The user has the to option to install the update.
- You can't charge for an application update.
- Applications distributed through Windows Phone Marketplace are licensed for installation on as many as five phones associated with the Windows Live ID account of the purchaser.
Regional Information
Windows Phone
Here's the list of markets where you can sell your application:
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Brazil
- Canada
- Chile
- China
- Colombia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hong Kong
- Hungary
- India
- Indonesia
- Ireland
- Italy
- Japan
- Malaysia
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Peru
- Philippines
- Poland
- Portugal
- Russia
- Singapore
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Taiwan
- United Kingdom
- United States
Here's the list of *countries or regions where payouts are supported:
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Brazil
- Canada
- Chile
- China
- Colombia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hong Kong
- Hungary
- India
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Korea
- Luxembourg
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Russia
- Singapore
- South Africa
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Taiwan
- United Kingdom
- United States
Xbox 360
Can submit in these countries:
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Australia
- Canada
- Denmark
- France
- Ireland
- Italy
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Singapore
- Spain
- Sweden
- Germany
- Japan
Can play in these countries:
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Canada
- France
- Italy
- Germany
- Japan
- Sweden
- Singapore
- Spain
During the app/game submission process, the default is to submit your app/game to all markets. If you want only specific markets, then you have to select the markets individually during the submission process.
* Are you a developer from a country or region not listed above? You can still publish applications to Marketplace by joining one of our Global Publishers.During the game submission process, you may choose which countries and languages to submit your game to.
Languages Supported
Windows Phone
- Chinese Simplified (PRC)
- Chinese Traditional (Taiwan)
- Czech (Czech Republic)
- Danish (Denmark)
- Dutch (Netherlands)
- English (United States)
- English (United Kingdom)
- Finnish (Finland)
- French (France)
- German (Germany)
- Greek (Greece)
- Hungarian (Hungary)
- Italian (Italy)
- Japanese (Japan)
- Korean (Korea)
- Norwegian (Norway)
- Polish (Poland)
- Portuguese (Brazil)
- Portuguese (Portugal)
- Russian (Russia)
- Spanish (Spain)
- Swedish (Sweden)
Xbox 360
- English
- French
- Italian
- German
- Spanish
- Japanese
