Content Guidelines

Here are the content standards that we apply to all apps and games to keep the Oculus Store safe and welcoming to our diverse user base. If your application does not adhere to the Content Guidelines or the Oculus Code of Conduct (including the content generated by your users and the conduct of your users) we may take action, including suspending your application.

The following is not accepted in the Oculus Store:

• Pornography, including content for the purpose of sexual gratification.
• Excessively violent or exploitative content (including but not limited to: torture, rape, child abuse or exploitation, human trafficking, animal abuse, cannibalism, glorification of gore and dismemberment).
• Hate speech, or the promotion or incitement of violence against individuals or groups based on protected characteristics. We don’t allow content that attacks people based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, caste, sex, gender, gender identity, and serious disease or disability.
• Bullying, harassment, or threats against individuals.
• Content created by organizations or individuals engaged in terrorist, organized hate, or organized violence activity.
• Content with the intent to glorify, praise, or support real terrorist, organized hate, or organized violence organizations or the leaders or individuals involved in these activities.
• Content that promotes suicide, self harm, or eating disorders.
• Content that spams, defrauds, or misleads for the purpose of harming users.
• Real money gambling or promoting or giving users the ability to redeem or cash out in-game currencies or objects.
• Content that facilitates the real world sale of regulated goods such as illegal or prescription drugs, firearms, explosives, and firearm accessories.
• Applications directed to children or users under the age of 13.

Of course, your app must abide by the laws of your country and the territories in which it will be published.

When it comes to mature content (for instance violence, alcohol/drugs, nudity, or adult language), we are likely to accept content that generally falls within the threshold of an R-rating for a movie. Note that even though your application may contain these elements, the use of them in marketing materials on our platform may be limited. These policies are described in more detail in the Store Asset Content Guidelines section below.

Oculus Platform Abuse Policy

We want to encourage developers to create virtual reality experiences that users will enjoy. We provide Developer Mode on Oculus Go and Quest because it allows developers to run, debug, and test their applications.

Developer Mode is not intended for piracy. Our Terms of Service prohibit accessing or using our services for any illegal or unauthorized purpose, including infringing or violating the rights of Oculus, our users, or any third party. Our Code of Conduct likewise forbids users from encouraging or promoting illegal activity. We also employ dedicated teams and develop advanced technical systems to detect misuse and violations and reserve the right to take appropriate action as per our Terms of Service, including removing content, blocking access to certain features, disabling an account, or contacting law enforcement.

The Platform Abuse Policy below further explains the types of activities that violate our Terms of Service and Code of Conduct and the actions we may elect to take if the Terms or Policy is violated.

References to “you” in this Policy mean you, your organization and/or other individuals in your organization that have Developer Mode.

Policy Against Abuse

If you have enabled Developer Mode, and we believe you have misused the platform, including if it appears you have done any of the following:

• Uploaded, distributed, or sideloaded any of the following:

  • Content that appears to be infringing, copied, or pirated; or
  • Content that contains malicious code; or
  • Mods of applications available on or through our platform that appear to infringe on third party’s intellectual property rights, introduce malicious code, give players an unfair advantage, or are otherwise not approved; or
• Used software or other tools to extract assets or content (videos, music, etc.); or
• Violated other Oculus Terms of Service, Code of Conduct, or other Oculus policies.

Then we may, without limiting any other rights and remedies available to us (including any other rights to terminate or suspend your account or access to the Services), elect to do any or all of the following:

• Warn you that your conduct has violated our policies;
• Limit, suspend, disable your Developer Mode;
• Limit or ban your access to certain Oculus platform features;
• Suspend, terminate or ban your Oculus user account;
• Ban you from creating or registering any new or additional Oculus accounts; and/or
• Refer you to law enforcement.

We may, in our sole discretion, elect to take any or all of the actions above based on our assessment of your actions or violation(s), and provide or not provide a warning prior to taking action, as we deem appropriate. We may elect, in our sole discretion, to skip any warning or any other lesser action and/or to take any other approach to enforcement of our policy that we deem to be appropriate.

What Happens When Your Account is Limited, Suspended, or Terminated?

We want to protect our developer community and end users. Therefore if we believe that you have engaged in piracy or spreading malicious mods or code (even if unintentionally), we will have the right, in our sole discretion, to immediately suspend your Developer Mode.

• We may, but are not obligated to, subsequently conduct a review to determine the nature and seriousness of your violation. If we determine in our sole discretion that your violation is serious, including in cases where you have uploaded pirated or infringing content, or content that contains malicious code, then we may permanently terminate your Developer Mode and/or Oculus user account (and ban you from creating a new or additional account), and take any other enforcement actions that we deem to be appropriate.
• If your Developer Mode is suspended or disabled, you will not be able to access your developer dashboard or sideloaded content.
• If your user account is suspended or terminated, you will not be able to access any applications or content on your device, including purchased content. You will not be entitled to any refund in such event, except to the extent required by applicable law. In such event, unless you have been banned from creating a new or additional Oculus account, you will be able to create a new user account to continue to use your device.

How to appeal a decision

If you think we made a mistake in suspending or disabling your account, you can appeal our decision by contacting us here. Please describe what action we took against you and the reason for your appeal.

Comfort Ratings

Comfort is very important to us. Comfort is a subjective, variable, and individual experience. However, we want to communicate to users as best we can about what they can generally expect from an app. To do so, we employ three comfort ratings: Comfortable, Moderate, and Intense. You can get a sense for how these are applied by looking through the Oculus Store catalog.

“Comfortable” experiences generally avoid camera movement, player motion, or disorienting content and effects. Generally, apps that have fixed camera position will be classified this way. “Moderate” experiences, on the other hand, might have more camera and player motion. “Intense” experiences usually incorporate first person camera motion, acceleration, or significant camera movement and player motion. In general, pay a lot of attention to how comfortable the experience is. Investing in comfort is worth it. Even “Moderate” and “Intense” apps should strive to be comfortable as possible.

Video Container Apps

Collections of unique, high-quality 360 videos are welcome, especially if they’re interactive. If your app is primarily video, consider integrating spatialized audio. We generally do not accept applications that only present a small number of 2D videos, nor apps that are a wrapper for a single 360 video.

For single 360 videos, consider publishing to Oculus Video. Oculus Video features high quality content that demonstrates the immersion of VR in engaging short 360 videos. Visit the Oculus Creators Portal for more details on how to publish to Oculus Video.

Data Collection

If your app collects data, you must clearly articulate your data privacy policy, and then abide by that policy. Comply with all relevant privacy laws. If you collect a user’s email address, the user must explicitly opt-in for both its collection and use. We are protective of our community’s email experience and do not want Oculus to be associated with unexpected email deliveries, so err on the side of user awareness. Of course, your app must abide by the laws of your country and the territories into which it will be published.

For mobile apps, be extra careful to remove any unused Android permissions from your application manifest, particularly those that relate to the user’s private data.

Note: We regret that Oculus cannot provide templates, legal advice, or other advice to assist in generating your privacy policy.

Payments

Apps in the Oculus Store must not contain other platforms or commerce solutions. If your app has in-app purchases and you want to distribute in the Oculus Store, you must use the Platform In-App Purchase APIs to handle billing. Apps distributed outside of our Store may use their own commerce systems. See Distribution Options.

Content Ratings

All Rift, Go, and Quest apps must be rated by the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC). All Mobile apps must be rated by both the IARC and the Game Rating and Administrator Committee (GRAC). You can obtain ratings directly through the Developer Dashboard, in the Submission Info > Content Ratings section.

IARC

The IARC and its member rating authorities provide ratings designed to reflect cultural differences around the world. Once the rating process is completed, the IARC provides age ratings that help users make age-appropriate choices.

During the submission process, you will be redirected from the Oculus Developer Dashboard to the IARC website to complete a questionnaire about the content in your application. There is no fee to request a rating, and results are provided instantaneously. By requesting an IARC rating, you understand and accept Oculus will disclose your application name, organization name, and contact email to the IARC for purposes of obtaining a rating.

GRAC

Oculus is an authorized GRAC self-rating authority, which means that games that receive an IARC certificate through Oculus receive a GRAC rating automatically.

Restricted Use of Oculus Name and Logos

The trademarks of Oculus, including its name, logo, and those of its products or its partners’ products such as “Rift,” “Gear VR,” “Go,” or “Quest” must not appear anywhere in your app. The exceptions are:

• References to Oculus hardware or services, for example in a “Quit to Oculus Home?” dialog box or similar UI.
• Models or meshes supplied to you by Oculus explicitly for inclusion in your app, for example controller models with the Oculus logo on them.
• The Oculus Brand site contains detailed information about how you’re able to use the Oculus name and assets.

Store Asset Content Guidelines

Oculus has a set of Content Guidelines that prevents objectionable and/or offensive material from release on our Platform. However, even if your game or application pass these Acceptance Criteria, if it contains allowable mature or controversial content, we have a separate set of guidelines for the marketing materials we accept on our platform. Whereas we essentially permit up to R-rated content on our platform, we ask that the marketing materials used in our store remain PG-13.

Our policies are meant to permit marketing of your content effectively and truthfully while reducing the amount of controversial marketing material seen by all of our users. This means that we will work with you to make sure that your marketing materials neither display content that could bother users nor lacks the information that they need to understand what the game or app likely contains.

The following imagery is restricted in the Oculus Store

Not all marketing assets are the same: some are seen more widely and some are only viewable once the users click to find out more about your product. Therefore we treat key art and cover images more strictly than trailers and screen shots.

KEY ART AND COVER IMAGES MUST NOT CONTAIN:

• Violence:
  • Gore: While representation of blood is allowable, innards, limbs, dismemberment, etc. are not.
  • Realistic, direct violence: Weapons connecting with a victim (i.e. bullets, knives, fists making contact). Cartoon or clearly fanciful violence, however, may be OK.
  • Violent subjugation or objectification: Fear is ok, but a victim being victimized is not.
  • Guns pointed directly at the viewer
• Nudity and Sex
  • Genitalia, bare breasts, or bare buttocks.
  • Depictions of sexual acts (even without nudity)
  • Depictions of sexual subjugation, brutality, or menace
  • Overtly provocative or blatantly titillating images
• Other banned imagery
  • Drug usage
  • Racist or hateful imagery (such as swastikas, Pepe the Frog, or similar images whether they were offensive at the time of submission or became offensive later)

SCREENSHOTS AND TRAILERS MUST NOT CONTAIN:

Screenshots and trailers may contain the above in context and to a reasonable degree to the extent required to inform the user what is in the content. Use appropriate judgment. For instance, the following would not be allowed:

• A compilation roll of “best headshots”
• A video app with a variety of content should not focus on only the parts of their product that show scantily clad women
• News, education, and other non-fictional applications will be given more leeway. For example, a documentary on WWII might be able to include a swastika in historical context

In addition to the content requirements for assets, we also have specific requirements around composition, such as minimum font sizes and bleed areas. Learn about the composition guidelines in the Oculus Store Asset Design Guidelines .