Content Rating for Windows Store & Windows Phone Store

Resources for getting a content rating

In some countries, game ratings and certification is voluntary. But many countries — like Taiwan, South Africa, Brazil, and Korea —  have laws that require games to have content ratings. If you want your game or app to appear in the marketplace in those countries, you’ll have to get it rated.

The process for getting a content rating varies from system to system. Both ESRB and PEGI have online tools that let you easily identify your app’s rating. CSRR lets you select the rating yourself.

• ESRB
  • For Microsoft Windows 8 (Win8) apps, you can use the  Automated Rating Tool
  • For Windows Phone, you will need to apply for an ESRB publisher account. Check out the   Game Publishers section of the ESRB website for information on requesting access. You’ll need to send them a letter on your company letterhead requesting an account. Once they process your request, they’ll send you information on how to log in using your account information and get your games rated. If you’re only publishing your game digitally, you can use their free Short Form process.
    
• PEGI – online submission
• CSSR – Taiwan Game Software Rating website

Windows Phone Store

After you get your ratings certificates, you’ll upload them when you submit or update your Windows Phone app. For CSSR, you just need to report the rating your game received; you don’t need to upload a PDF file with the submission.

Windows Store (Windows 8 Apps)

Like the Windows Phone store, you upload your ratings certificates when you submit your release to the Windows Store. You can also generate a Game Definition File (GDF) to include with your app. This enables integration with the Games Explorer on Windows.

If you want to go this route, you can use Microsoft’s  GDFMaker tool to create a GDF file. See Creating a GDF file (Windows) for more information.

1. Start the Game Definition File Maker tool by running GDFMAKER.EXE from the %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Windows Kits\8.0\bin\x86 directory.
2. Create a New Project, and make sure the Game Name and Description fields in the Game Definition File Maker tool match what you entered in your project’s Package.appxmanifest file.
3. For each rating system that your game supports, click the Add button and add the correct rating.
4. When you’re done, go to Resources and then click Build Script for Project.

You also need to create a DLL project container for the GDF file, and then add the created DLL to your game project in Visual Studio. Follow the directions in the Creating a GDF file (Windows) writeup.

Note: I used SimplyIcon to create the Windows Icon file (*.ico).