If you still haven’t filed your taxes (tax day is April 18!), MSCHF’s free dating simulator launching soon may help. The art collective’s latest stunt is Tax Heaven 3000a “visual novel dating game that actually prepares your 2022 US federal tax return,” according to the game now deleted steam page (and I’ll talk more about deletion in a moment).
The game’s description, which appears to be written from the point of view of the game’s anime waifu, Iris, is largely a diatribe against the wildly complex tax filing process in the US, and Tax Heaven 3000 it looks like it could be make the process easier. When I used TurboTax, the experience largely just answered a series of questions about my finances. Preparing for taxes could be much more fun in the context of a dating sim, which is usually also about answering a series of questions.
MSCHF says so Tax Heaven 3000 is “suitable for single filers with no dependents” so depending on your situation it may not suit what you need. It strongly warns that “when you prepare your taxes in the game, you prepare your taxes in real life”, so if you actually prepare your taxes using the game, make sure you are using your real financial information. And you’ll still have to find a way to pay your state taxes. The game just prepares your federal taxes, says MSCHF co-founder Daniel Greenberg The edge.
Just to be clear, we haven’t tried it Tax Heaven 3000, so we cannot vouch for the quality of the game or the ability to prepare your taxes. Use at your own risk.
Sometime on Wednesday though Tax Heaven 3000 was removed from Steam and in an update to the game’s store page, MSCHF claimed that Steam was “deplatforming” the game. Greenberg says in an email The edge that the game went through Steam’s “standard verification process” and was due to launch on April 4, but “out of the blue, it was de-verified and removed from the platform without explanation.” We’ve reached out to Valve for comment.
MSCHF is still planning to launch Tax Heaven 3000 on April 4 on itch.io or as a free instant download, according to Greenberg. In the meantime you can see more about it Tax Heaven 3000 and the collector’s edition (which comes with a software box, disc, and of course an Iris body pillow) on the game page special website.
Update March 22, 6:11 PM ET: Tax Heaven 3000 is no longer on Steam.
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.