diff --git a/src/as-validator-issue-tag.h b/src/as-validator-issue-tag.h
index 06517efa..1992b0ce 100644
--- a/src/as-validator-issue-tag.h
+++ b/src/as-validator-issue-tag.h
@@ -590,17 +590,17 @@ AsValidatorIssueTag as_validator_issue_tag_list[] =  {
 	     "`developer` block instead."),
 	},
 
-	{ "developer-name-has-url",
-	  AS_ISSUE_SEVERITY_WARNING,
+	{ "developer-info-missing",
+	  AS_ISSUE_SEVERITY_INFO,
 	  /* TRANSLATORS: Please do not translate AppStream tag and property names (in backticks). */
-	  N_("The `name` child of a `developer` block must not contain a hyperlink."),
+	  N_("This component contains no `developer` element with information about its author."),
 	},
 
 	{ "developer-id-missing",
-	  AS_ISSUE_SEVERITY_INFO,
+	  AS_ISSUE_SEVERITY_WARNING,
 	  /* TRANSLATORS: Please do not translate AppStream tag and property names (in backticks). */
 	  N_("The `developer` element is missing an `id` property, containing a unique string ID for the developer. "
-		  "Consider adding a unique ID."),
+	     "Consider adding a unique ID."),
 	},
 
 	{ "developer-id-invalid",
@@ -609,6 +609,18 @@ AsValidatorIssueTag as_validator_issue_tag_list[] =  {
 	     "It must also only contain lowercase ASCII letters, numbers and punctuation."),
 	},
 
+	{ "developer-name-missing",
+	  AS_ISSUE_SEVERITY_WARNING,
+	  /* TRANSLATORS: Please do not translate AppStream tag and property names (in backticks). */
+	  N_("The `developer` block does not have a `name` element with a human-readable project author name."),
+	},
+
+	{ "developer-name-has-url",
+	  AS_ISSUE_SEVERITY_WARNING,
+	  /* TRANSLATORS: Please do not translate AppStream tag and property names (in backticks). */
+	  N_("The `name` child of a `developer` block must not contain a hyperlink."),
+	},
+
 	{ "unknown-desktop-id",
 	  AS_ISSUE_SEVERITY_ERROR,
 	  N_("The set value is not an identifier for a desktop environment as registered with Freedesktop.org."),
diff --git a/src/as-validator.c b/src/as-validator.c
index 1736a0cb..6ec1652e 100644
--- a/src/as-validator.c
+++ b/src/as-validator.c
@@ -645,8 +645,12 @@ as_validator_add_override (AsValidator *validator,
 		"tag-empty",
 		/* allow GNOME to validate metadata using its new versioning scheme (until a better solution is found) */
 		"releases-not-in-order",
+		/* very rarely (e.g. for apps like Wine) not having a launchable is actually okay */
+		"desktop-app-launchable-missing",
 		/* allowed for a while, as part of the deprecation phase */
 		"developer-name-tag-deprecated",
+		/* temporarily allowed to ease transition a bit */
+		"developer-id-missing",
 		NULL
 	};
 
@@ -1489,6 +1493,7 @@ static void
 as_validator_check_developer (AsValidator *validator, xmlNode *node)
 {
 	g_autofree gchar *devid = NULL;
+	gboolean developer_name_found = FALSE;
 
 	devid = as_xml_get_prop_value (node, "id");
 	if (devid == NULL) {
@@ -1522,6 +1527,8 @@ as_validator_check_developer (AsValidator *validator, xmlNode *node)
 
 		if (as_str_equal0 (iter->name, "name")) {
 			g_autofree gchar *content = as_xml_get_node_value (iter);
+
+			developer_name_found = TRUE;
 			if (as_validate_has_hyperlink (content))
 				as_validator_add_issue (validator,
 							iter,
@@ -1529,6 +1536,14 @@ as_validator_check_developer (AsValidator *validator, xmlNode *node)
 							NULL);
 		}
 	}
+
+	if (!developer_name_found) {
+		as_validator_add_issue (validator,
+					node,
+					"developer-name-missing",
+					NULL);
+
+	}
 }
 
 /**
@@ -3536,6 +3551,11 @@ as_validator_validate_component_node (AsValidator *validator, AsContext *ctx, xm
 		}
 	}
 
+	/* check if we had a developer tag */
+	if (!g_hash_table_contains (found_tags, "developer")) {
+		as_validator_add_issue (validator, NULL, "developer-info-missing", NULL);
+	}
+
 	as_validator_clear_current_cpt (validator);
 	return cpt;
 }