Module 05
Lotcheck and certification
Before a game can go on the eShop, Nintendo reviews it. The public site explains why. The detailed test list, and even the unofficial name “lotcheck”, are not spelled out there.
What Nintendo says in public
From “The Process”: when the game nears completion you sign a publishing agreement, obtain an age rating, and submit the game for review. “Before you can publish your product, you’ll need to submit it to Nintendo for reviewing. This process is necessary to ensure that the game can be safely played and conforms to Nintendo production standards. It is a good idea to keep in mind the Nintendo guidelines during the entire development process.”
Unity’s public Switch page, in plainer language, includes the same idea as its own step: “Go through the platform’s testing process.”
Sources: The Process; Unity — Nintendo Switch
Behind the NDA
The word lotcheck is widely used by developers for Nintendo’s certification pass. Nintendo’s public process and FAQ pages checked for this course do not define that word, publish a test checklist, or state an official fee or turnaround time. Once you have portal access, the guidelines and submission instructions there are the ones you must follow. This course will not invent a pass/fail list and pretend it is Nintendo’s.
Unverified, but commonly discussed by developers
Third-party guides often say certification takes a few weeks, that a failed build is followed by a resubmission, and that testers care about crashes, save-data safety, sleep and HOME-menu behaviour, language and button terminology, and advertised features actually being present. That is plausible, and it is good hygiene for any console port, but it is not an official public checklist. Do not schedule a launch around a blog’s “two to four weeks” figure until you have Nintendo’s own current guidance.
What you can prepare in public, without guessing
You can still work to a high standard using only what is already obvious:
- Keep the game stable. A title that crashes in ordinary play is not ready to submit.
- Handle interruption. On a console, players will open the HOME menu and put the system to sleep. The game should resume without losing progress or hanging. The exact required behaviour is in Nintendo’s confidential guidelines.
- Support the ways people actually hold a Switch: handheld, a Pro Controller, and docked play on a television, with readable text in each mode if you claim them.
- Use Nintendo’s own names for buttons and features only as the official guidelines allow, once you can read them. Until then, keep temporary labels easy to change.
- If you advertise a language, a player count, or a feature on the eShop page, the build must include it.
- Do not include debug menus, placeholder legal text, or music and art you do not have the rights to ship.
The prep kit has a certification-readiness checklist written in that spirit: useful preparation, clearly marked as not a substitute for Nintendo’s official lotcheck documents.
The publishing agreement comes first
Nintendo lists the publishing agreement alongside the age rating and the review. You should not think of certification as a purely technical step. Commercial terms, territorial rights and content rules live in that agreement. Europe’s public contact for publishing questions is agreements_publisher@nintendo.de.
Sources: The Process; Contact