Unable to submit a new app version because of missing com.apple.developer.game-center entitlement key

Question

This month, Apple decided to be a little pickier about the Game Center entitlement in App Store Connect. Until then, our app was working just fine with Game Center. However, we are now unable to submit any new app version because of that.

In the App Store Connect, we get a warning in the Game Center section:

To enable Game Center for your app, you must add the com.apple.developer.game-center entitlement in Xcode

If I click the "Add to Review" button anyway, I get this error message:

Unable to Add for Review
The items below are required to start the review process:
You must add the com.apple.developer.game-center key in Xcode.

The error is clear, the only problem is everything in the project is already set.

• The entitlement already contains the com.apple.developer.game-center and set to true

• The App identifier already contains the Game Center capability

In Signing & Capabilities, everything seems to be set just fine too:

I tried disabling and reenabling the capability in Xcode and from the Apple Developer portal with the updated the Provisioning Profile. The problem remains.

The build is made from Xcode Cloud with Xcode 14.3.1.

Please let me know if anyone has any idea about what I might be missing.

Tyrocidine

I just submitted the app :) – Krugersdorp

I get the same problem. It seems that every settings are correct, but Apple rejects updating my game. Have you solved this? – Fluoridation

@Fluoridation Take a look at stakri solution, it might work for you if your using WatchKit app or other extensions – Tyrocidine

@Tyrocidine Found a solution online, replace Automatically manage signing with Manually manage signing, it works. – Fluoridation

@Fluoridation Il was already in manual when we had the problem, but good to see you found a solution :) – Tyrocidine

@Tyrocidine also need to regenerate and download a new profile, it should work. – Fluoridation

Answer 1

For anyone that faces this issue but their app is actually using Game Center: My app's main target (the only one using Game Center functionality) had everything set up fine (App ID/entitlements file/capabilities). I took a look at my WatchKit app and WatchKit app extension targets and that turned out to be the issue - even though my app does not use Game Center on the watch.

• In developer portal, I turned Game Center on for both WatchKit app and WatchKit extension IDs (under Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles -> Identifiers)
• In Xcode, I turned on the Game Center capability in the WatchKit extension target (which in turn created an .entitlements file for that target)
• I forced a re-creation of the automatically managed provision profiles (deleted everything under ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning\ Profiles)

Uploading a new build had no issue anymore and I could successfully submit the app.

Neall

I think that's something I tried and didn't work but not sure if I did turn on Game Center for the WatchKit app in the dev center... I'll make sure tu give that a try when i'll have the time (for now, we just ended up disabling the Game Center features), thanks :) – Tyrocidine

Answer 2

1. Login to appstore conntect
2. Select the app you want to submit
3. Select App Store tab
4. In application version details information screen, scroll down to Game Center section and uncheck the checkbox (yes, apple!)

Krugersdorp

I will probably end up doing that and disable this feature xD – Tyrocidine

Hey, we have the same issue - if we 'disable' the GameCenter checkbox on AppStoreConnect and add the entitlement, are we sure it will work properly? I didn't find any info from Apple on what to do with the GameCenter checkbox after the 16th of August. – Bellbottoms

@MartinŠkorc I'm pretty sure if you disable this checkbox the app won't be able to access any of the Game Center feature – Tyrocidine

My app do not used Game Center but still its checked for me for unknown reason(I can only blame apple) app is there in market for > 4 years and all of a sudden this check box toggled :D – Krugersdorp

@Tyrocidine , if we try to send it for review after disabling , it throws an error and this error i coming up as a shock . I dont even have an game -entitlements – Hennie

We are facing a similar issue on our company, but it's the other way around, we do not use game center (never did) and Apple keeps rejecting our attempts of requesting a new review... Does anyone got an update about this? – Alpinist

@Devanshsadhotra Since I was able to completly disable the feature and publish a new version, there are a couple things you can check : - Make sure the Game Center capability is removed from the 'Signing & Capabilities' of your target. double check in the appstore config and in any entitlement file in your project - Go to the Apple dev provisioning portal to disable the Game Center feature from the appid of your app, including any extension you might be using and regenerate and install the provisioning profiles - Disable the feature in AppStoreConnect – Tyrocidine

@Tyrocidine did all that here, the problem persists... It's a very weird situation, we have disabled all possible ways to include game center on our settings, but the release page is still blocking our reviews. – Alpinist

can you see if there is any reference to Game Center in entitlement file? – Krugersdorp

Answer 3

Creating a new Apple Distribution certificate fixed problem!

Creamcups

Answer 4

I fixed this problem as follows:

string projectPath = PBXProject.GetPBXProjectPath(pathToBuiltProject);
string targetName = PBXProject.GetUnityTestTargetName();
string entitlementsFile = "MyProject.entitlements";
var manager = new ProjectCapabilityManager(projectPath, entitlementsFile, targetName);
manager.Entitlements.root.SetBoolean("com.apple.developer.game-center", true);

Calling the method manager.AddGameCenter() - does not perform the necessary actions.

Airlia