Platform Certification and Compliance Testing
What this domain tests
This domain tests mandatory platform behaviors rather than your game's fun. Sony publishes TRC and TCR requirements, Microsoft publishes XR requirements, Nintendo runs Lotcheck, and mobile stores enforce Apple App Store Review Guidelines and Google Play policies.
Core rules
- Each platform publishes requirement IDs. Map every applicable requirement to a test case and reviewable evidence.
- Common certification areas: boot and sign-in flow, user sign-out, controller disconnect and reconnect, suspend and resume, save data and storage full, network loss, parental controls, achievements or trophies, entitlement checks, resolution, and safe area.
- Test on retail hardware with current system software, not only development kits.
- Requirements are pass or fail; game quality does not excuse a certification failure.
- Store policy compliance is separate from platform technical requirements but can also block release.
Worked example
During an online match the controller battery dies. The platform requirement says the game must detect the disconnect, notify the player, and avoid corrupting save data. The tester reproduces on retail hardware, captures video and logs, and confirms the session recovers on reconnect. The reasoning: the expected result comes from the requirement ID, and evidence must be reviewable by the platform holder rather than described informally.
Traps
Treating certification as a final-week checkbox; testing only a happy boot path; missing platform-specific requirement IDs; assuming a development kit result transfers to retail; confusing a store policy violation with a gameplay defect; failing to retest after a certification fix.