Stephen Brenish
Certification is the one test in game development you cannot argue with. A platform holder plays your build against its technical requirements, and if it fails, it does not ship. The failures are rarely exotic. They are save files that break on a full drive, a controller that drops mid-boss-fight with no pause, a network error that leaves an endless spinner, or a button prompt from the wrong console.
This checklist covers the areas every console platform tests. Work through it with your QA team before you book a submission, and the formal requirement documents become a verification step rather than a list of surprises.
Tick each item as your QA team verifies it. Your progress saves in this browser. Untick features your game does not have and their items disappear.
Boot, stability and performance
Save data
User accounts and profiles
Controllers and input
System events
Network and online
Achievements and Trophies
Purchases, DLC and entitlements
Text, terminology and localization
Ratings and content
Store assets and submission package
Physical release
This checklist covers the areas every console platform tests. It is not a substitute for each platform holder's own requirements (Sony's TRC, Xbox Requirements, Nintendo's guidelines), which are provided to licensed developers and change over time. Map every item here to the current requirement documents before you submit.
How to run a pre-certification pass
A pre-cert pass is a deliberate internal test of your build against the platform’s requirements, run before the platform holder runs its own.
- Get the current requirement documents for every platform as soon as you are licensed, and check for updates before each pass. Requirements change.
- Give compliance one owner. Someone on QA or production owns the mapping from requirements to test cases and tracks every open item. Shared ownership means no ownership.
- Map every requirement to a test case in your test management tool, and tag each with the platforms it applies to.
- Test every hardware model and mode you list on the store: base and upgraded consoles, digital editions, handheld and docked.
- Log failures against the requirement they break, with reproduction steps, and verify every fix on a fresh build.
- Submit with complete paperwork. Missing forms, wrong version numbers and asset errors delay submissions that would otherwise pass.
When to do what
| Phase | Certification work |
|---|---|
| Pre-production | Read every platform’s requirements. Design save, account, input and error handling to meet them from the start. |
| Production | Build compliance into features as they are made. Start age rating applications early. |
| Alpha | First internal compliance pass. Expect long lists; that is the point. |
| Beta | Full pass on every platform and hardware model. All declared languages tested. |
| Release candidate | Full regression on the exact build you will submit. Store assets and paperwork finalized. |
| Submission | Submit the build and package. Keep the team on fixes, not new work. |
| After results | Fix failures, verify, resubmit. A resubmission window in the schedule keeps launch intact. |
The game development schedule planner reserves this window automatically when you select console platforms, including a separate milestone for age ratings and a resubmission window before gold.
Where first-time teams get caught
Most certification failures fall into a handful of categories, and almost all of them are cheaper to design for than to fix late.
- Edge-case hardware. A crash that only happens on one console model is still a failure. Test everything you list.
- Mid-session events. Notifications, sign-outs, controller disconnects and suspend and resume all happen during play. Each needs a defined, tested behaviour.
- Save data under stress. Missing, corrupted and out-of-space cases need handling, not just the happy path.
- Achievements. Unobtainable or mis-triggered unlocks, and offline unlocks that never sync.
- Localization. If a language is declared on the store, every string must be translated and fit the UI.
- The submission package. Wrong asset sizes, inaccurate metadata and missing paperwork.
For the full process from developer registration through approval, read how console certification works for producers.
What this checklist is and is not
It is a structured way to find compliance problems early, organized around the categories every console tests. It is not a copy of any platform’s requirements. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo provide those confidentially to licensed developers, they differ by platform, and they change. Use this to get ready, then verify against the current documents for every platform you ship on.
If you are planning the rest of the launch, the indie game launch checklist covers marketing and store readiness, and alpha, beta and gold explained defines the milestones certification sits between.