Do we need to check "Mac App Store Validation"?

[Foriero]

If building for Xcode, do we need to check Mac App Store Validation?

[Tautvydas-Zilys]

You can, but you don’t have to.

[Mauri]

What it is for: Unity - Manual: Build and distribute a macOS application

Enable this to ensure that your app only runs when it contains a valid receipt from the Mac App Store. This prevents people from running the game on a different device to the one it was purchased on. Only disable this setting if you have implemented your own receipt validation.

Also from Unity - Scripting API: PlayerSettings.useMacAppStoreValidation :

Enable receipt validation for the Mac App Store.

This enables receipt validation for the Mac App Store. If this is enabled, your game will only run when it contains a valid receipt from the Mac App Store. Use this when submitting games to Apple for publishing on the App Store. This prevents people from running the game on any computer other than the one it was purchased on.

Note that this feature does not implement any strong copy protection. In particular, any potential crack against one Unity game would work against any other Unity content. For this reason, it is recommended that you implement your own receipt validation code on top of this using Unity’s plugin feature. However, since Apple requires plugin validation to initially happen before showing the screen setup dialog, you should still enable this check, or Apple might reject your submission.

[Tautvydas-Zilys]

It basically checks whether the game was actually downloaded from the app store before it’s launched, and if it wasn’t, it aborts the execution.

[Foriero]

I know what is it for. Just asking if it works correctly also for Xcode builds.

[Tautvydas-Zilys]

Yeah, it does. Xcode project has no effect on it,

[ow3n]

I can tell you this. If you do check the box and your players don’t want to sign in then the game will crash. I found out the hard way just trying to build and publish the app.