Rejection from Sony, Microsoft, or Apple kills marketing momentum and wastes advertising budgets. Statistics show that 70% of rejections are caused by minor issues the team overlooked because "it always worked before." A single rejection can cost $1,000–$5,000 for re-certification and rework. The goal of a compliance audit is to identify these trivial problems and prepare your game for a successful submission.
What is a compliance check and why is it critical?
Each platform has its own set of requirements: PlayStation TRC, Xbox TCR, Apple App Review Guidelines, and Google Play policies. These are updated regularly — what passed six months ago might get rejected today. Our engineers track every change and adapt checklists to the current SDK versions.
PlayStation (TRC). Common rejection reasons: incorrect handling of system events — suspend/resume, PS Button exit, controller disconnection. TRC requires pausing gameplay on controller disconnect (not just a UI notification). Many teams set Time.timeScale = 0 but forget about network events in multiplayer. Trophy unlock is also critical — it must only trigger on real achievements, never test triggers in release builds.
Xbox (TCR). Achievement unlock without a real trigger leads to automatic rejection. Also required: xinput compatibility, proper Quick Resume behavior (restore without session restart), and compliance with Xbox Accessibility Guidelines. The latter is often ignored as "optional," but Microsoft increasingly enforces basic accessibility requirements.
iOS App Store. Frequent issues: private API (leaked through third-party plugins), incorrect handling of App Background Modes, errors in IAP flow (Apple requires strict UX per Human Interface Guidelines). In particular, invalid privacy manifests have become a common rejection cause with recent iOS versions.
Google Play. Google checks target API level (must be current), consistency between code and the Data Safety section (mismatch leads to suspension), and compliance with Families Policy for games rated for children.
How to prepare for submission without rejections?
Work begins with reading the current requirements for your specific platform and SDK version — not last year's documentation, but the version effective on the submission date. Sony, Microsoft, and Apple update their guidelines frequently; subscribing to developer newsletters is mandatory.
Next, we build a compliance checklist tailored to your platform. It is not universal: it depends on genre, monetization, online features, age rating, and target regions (GDPR for EU, COPPA for USA).
Testing covers:
- all system scenarios (suspend, resume, sign-out, controller disconnect, low battery);
- IAP flow end-to-end, including restore purchases and error handling;
- network interruption scenarios (connection loss during transactions);
- age rating verification (in-game content vs. declared rating);
- privacy and permissions (only necessary permissions requested with proper justification strings);
- localization of system messages for all supported languages.
After testing, we produce a pre-submission report listing all non-compliances prioritized by likelihood of rejection.
Case study: duplicate achievement call in Game Center
On a mobile project one week before release, we discovered that GKAchievement.reportAchievements was called twice in a specific level progression scenario: once from gameplay logic and once from an analytics event. Apple detects duplicate achievement calls and flags them as potential cheating if frequent. We fixed it by adding deduplication at the AchievementManager level with a cache of already submitted achievements in PlayerPrefs. The audit took one week; pricing is determined individually.
What's included in the work
- Analysis of current requirements for your platform (TRC, TCR, App Review).
- Personalized checklist based on genre, monetization, and online modes.
- Complete testing of all system scenarios, IAP, network, privacy.
- Pre-submission report with prioritized violations and recommendations.
- Consultation on fixing identified issues.
- Optional: retesting after fixes.
- Access to documentation and support throughout all stages.
Comparison of common rejection causes
| Platform | Typical cause | Severity |
|---|---|---|
| PlayStation | Incorrect suspend/resume handling | High |
| Xbox | Achievement unlock without trigger | High |
| iOS | Private API in plugins | Medium |
| Android | Data Safety mismatch | High |
Estimated audit timelines
| Platform | Timeline |
|---|---|
| iOS or Android (single) | 1–2 weeks |
| iOS + Android | 2–3 weeks |
| Console (PlayStation or Xbox) | 2–4 weeks |
| Multi-platform (PC + Mobile + Console) | 4–8 weeks |
Why start the audit early?
Compliance testing is the final step, but it is better to start it parallel to main development. Basic items (system event handling, IAP flow) can be verified in early builds. This reduces the risk of expensive rework in the last week, saving up to 40% of the budget for fixes after rejection.
Our team consists of certified engineers with 10+ years of experience in game development. We have successfully conducted audits for over 50 projects across all major platforms. Get a consultation — we will evaluate your project and prepare a tailored proposal. Contact us to start preparing for a rejection-free submission.
A final submission checklist includes: verifying all metadata (screenshots, description, age rating per region), checking certificates and provisioning profiles, and testing on a clean install without previous data.