This dating-simulator game says it'll help prepare your taxes as you play — and criticizes TurboTax as 'predatory'
- MSCHF announced a free dating simulator that it says helps prepare your 2022 US federal tax return.
- The game is scheduled to launch April 4, but its listing on the Steam platform has been removed.
The art collective behind viral products like Lil Nas X's Satan Shoes announced a new upcoming launch that deals with another devilish topic — filing your taxes.
"Tax Heaven 3000" bills itself as a free dating simulator that walks a user through the process of preparing a 2022 US federal tax return with the help of an anime character named Iris.
"As the protagonist, you romance Iris, a cheerful and easygoing girl with a disconcerting affinity for your personal finance information," MSCHF said in its press release for the game. "Will you maximize your deductions, and charm your way into her heart?"
According to the Tax Heaven 3000 website, the game "checks eligibility for the earned income tax credit, American opportunity credit, and more," and is "suitable for singles without dependents."
Insider has not tested out the game ahead of its release, so we're not able to confirm whether the game will actually perform its advertised function of prepping your taxes.
The main character, Iris, also takes a dig at popular tax preparation services like TurboTax, which she calls "predatory, parasitic bottlenecks that deliberately complicate the tax filing process in order to make it unnavigable by ordinary people," and points to TurboTax's parent company, Intuit's, "extensive lobbying" of the US government.
There's also a character named "Turbo," according to the game's website, described as "an unsavory SaaS bro" who likes "corporate lobbying, confusing forms, dark UX" and fleece vests.
"Far from steering taxpayers away from free tax preparation offerings, our free advertising campaigns have led to more Americans filing their taxes for free than ever before and have been central to raising awareness of free tax prep," Intuit previously said in a statement in response to a recent complaint from the FTC.
The dating simulator is scheduled to launch on April 4, but the game's storefront page has been removed from the popular platform Steam. But the game is also scheduled to be released on the indie-game platform itch.io at 2 p.m. eastern time on that date.
Daniel Greenberg, MSCHF's chief revenue officer, said the simulator "went through Steam's standard verification process, and was ready go live April 4th, but out of nowhere if was de-verified and removed from the platform without explanation yesterday," in an email to Insider. Greenberg said that's all the team knows right now, and if it's not available on Steam, it will either be released on itch.io or via a direct download.
Valve, the parent company to Steam, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment ahead of publication.
Last July, MSCHF was behind the $10 "Eat the Rich" billionaire-shaped popsicles depicting moguls such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. More recently, the company went viral for its $350 "Big Red Boots" that sold out the same day they were released.