Anime Dating Sim Made to Help File Your Taxes Goes Viral, Gets Banned [UPDATED]

By Megan Peters

UPDATE: It seems like the Internet has been heard! Tax Heaven 3000 is back in business! After being removed by Steam, the developer behind the anime dating simulator has found a new home for the title. Tax Heaven 3000 is now available to purchase on Itchio for PC or Mac. A collector's edition has also been announced that comes with a body pillow and more!

It is ridiculous that taxes are as difficult as they are. In this day and age, you'd expect the tedious process to have become easier with tech, but that hasn't happened. Only those willing to pay big bucks for tax services tend to have an easy time during return season, but one visual novel has gone viral for attempting to break the status quo. And now, it seems Tax Heaven 3000 has been punished as such.

If you have not heard of Tax Heaven 3000, you better buckle up. The anime dating sim went viral on social media this week thanks to its strange if not promising premise. The indie otome was created to help fans prepare their U.S. federal tax return by seducing an anime girl named Iris. Millions of people have learned about the dating sim thanks to its viral rounds on social media, but the fame was a double-edged sword.

After all, Tax Heaven 3000 was just removed from Steam, and the developer behind the otome is at a loss as to why. The Verge confirmed the title was taken off Steam, and no word was given by Valve as to why its platform axed access. According to the title's developer MSCHF, Tax Heaven 3000 had passed Steam's verification process and was slated to go live in early April.

Of course, netizens are curious as to whether Tax Heaven 3000 will be returned to Steam, and MSCHF seems keen on that happening. After all, the art collective is known for pushing boundaries and making social commentary through its projects. From Lil Nas X's Satan Shoes to its viral Big Red Boots, the organization has been in the public's eye often as of late. So when tax season came around, MSCHF felt the need to comment on America's for-profit return system that prices more and more people unfairly by the year.

"Most wealthy countries make tax filing free if the burden of preparation is even passed along to individuals at all. But, corporate tax filing services are (by dint of extensive lobbying) predatory, parasitic bottlenecks that deliberately complicate the tax filing process in order to make it unnavigable by ordinary people," MSCHF explains in its description of Tax Heaven 3000.

If the game does become available in time for this year's return deadline, fans will want to keep its demographic in mind. Tax Heaven 3000 stresses it is only suitable for "single filers without dependents" so others will have to find other ways of filing. As for those single filers on standby, MSCHF may have found the ultimate way to bypass tax regulators with this dating sim, and all it took was some help from an anime accountant named Iris.

What do you make of this wild otome story? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.

HT – ANN

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