Platform Certification and Compliance Testing
What this domain tests
Certification and compliance testing checks a build against first-party platform requirements and legal or ratings obligations. The exam expects familiarity with requirement documents, submission flow and the kinds of failures that block a release.
Core rules
- Each platform publishes technical requirements: Sony's TRC (Technical Requirements Checklist), Microsoft's Xbox Requirements (XR), Nintendo's Lotcheck requirements. PC storefronts, mobile stores and age-rating bodies add their own policies.
- Requirements often cover suspend/resume, controller disconnect and reconnect, user sign-out, save data integrity, parental controls, privacy notices, error handling, achievement and trophy behaviour, and correct button prompts per region.
- Age ratings: ESRB, PEGI, USK, CERO and IARC questionnaires must match the shipped content, including downloadable content and in-game purchases.
- Certification is a formal pass/fail submission; a waiver must be requested and approved, not assumed.
- Day-one patches and post-launch updates go through the same certification process.
Worked example
During a pre-certification run, the tester disconnects the controller on the pause menu. The requirement says the game must pause and show a reconnect prompt. The build keeps running and the player character is damaged. Reasoning: this is a clear requirement violation, not a design preference; it is reproducible on retail hardware, so the tester captures video, notes the requirement identifier, sets severity to critical because it can block submission, and logs it in the certification tracker rather than the general gameplay queue. The fix is retested on a retail kit with the same firmware, and the whole affected requirement area is re-run, not just the single step.
Traps
Testing only on development hardware. Missing suspend/resume and sign-out cases. Wrong region button icons or confirm/cancel mapping. Developer text or debug menus left in a release build. Assuming a day-one patch escapes certification. Treating a waiver as automatic. Ignoring mobile store review guidelines.