6 Waiver Requests

This page provides an overview of waiver requests.

Contents

What Are Waiver Requests?

In some cases, due to special circumstances, issues cannot be fixed even when a part is not compliant with the guidelines or there is a general bug in the master ROM.

A "waiver request" refers to getting permission from Nintendo to release the product in its current state for the specified issue. If the waiver request is approved, Lotcheck performs testing for application specifications that match the conditions that were waived.

Two Types of Timing for Waiver Requests

Waiver requests are divided into two types, depending on when the request was submitted.

Before Submitting to Lotcheck

Specifications not compliant with guidelines that the partner knows about. If discussed with Nintendo in advance, this can be supported without any delays when the master ROM is submitted.

For more information, see 3.5 Understand Which Guideline Items Are Applicable > Requesting a Waiver in this document, or Master ROM Submission Procedures > Submitting a Master ROM > Submitting Waiver Requests.
The items requiring Nintendo approval described in Required Approvals in 3.11 Resolving Issues on this page are also considered waiver requests.

During Lotcheck Testing

Content for which specifications not compliant with guidelines or general bugs are discovered during Lotcheck.

For more information about handling issues, see the Lotcheck Issues thread reported by the Lotcheck Department.

Types of Waiver Requests

There are three types of waiver requests: temporary approvals, permanent approvals, and precheck approvals. This section describes the application conditions and characteristics of each type of request.

Temporary Approval

In most cases, select this option.
This waiver approval only applies to the current release version. It is not valid for different release versions.

Select Temporary Approval when there are no instructions from Nintendo.
Instead of asking developers to fix the master ROM for the specific release version, Nintendo often sets the terms for approving the waiver to conditions such as fixing the issue via patch or improved user support.

Permanent Approval

Only select this option when Nintendo instructs you to.
This permanent waiver approval applies not only to the current release, but also to future releases.

Precheck Approval

Select Precheck Approval when there is a required response item needing approval at the time of precheck submission.
This waiver applies only to the version submitted for precheck.

You cannot submit to Lotcheck unless all Issues on the Release Dashboard in NDP have been resolved. As described earlier, if one of those Issues is interfering with Lotcheck submission, this waiver removes it temporarily.
It is only valid for the version submitted for precheck. Even if the release version is the same, this approval is not valid for the official Lotcheck submission.

Waiver Request Process

Some of the procedure differs depending on the request timing (before submitting to Lotcheck or after Lotcheck has started). See the following figure for each case.




 


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