In Budget 2023, the Government provided funding of $40 million per annum for delivering and administering a rebate for the game development sector, with a view to support the ongoing development and growth of game development in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The Game Development Sector Rebate (GDSR) is a rebate on eligible expenditures of eligible firms, at a rate of 20%. A firm’s rebate payment will be capped at $3 million per annum and the minimum qualifying expenditure per annum is $250,000. The GDSR is effective as of 1 April 2023 which means that eligible firms will be able to count eligible expenditures from this date.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has policy responsibility for the GDSR while NZ On Air has been appointed as the agency to administer this rebate due to our experience as a funding agency and our experience in the gaming space (limited to children's games funding to date.)
After two years, MBIE will review the scheme to gauge uptake and early impact, and it will undertake a further review at around the four-year mark to assess whether the scheme provides net benefits to New Zealand and whether modifications should be pursued.
Read on for all the information you need on the GDSR Guidelines, the Terms of Trade or to find out more about the registration and application process.
GDSR Process Flowchart
Timeline - GDSR Year Two
If you haven't already, make sure you subscribe to our newsletter to make sure you get all the most up-to-date information on the GDSR.
5 Dec 2024: GDSR Webinar (see NZGDA Events page to register)
3 February 2025: Registration Opens
28 February 2025: Registration Closes
1 Apr 2025: Applications Open
9 May 2025: Applications Close
May - June 2025: Application and assessment processing
July 2025: Decisions announced
July - August 2025: Payments issued
How to Apply
You will be able to register in the new year. We will let you know once registration is open.
Policy Documents and Guidelines
Resources to Apply
Additional Resources
Accreditation Guidelines
These logo assets are provided to game studios to acknowledge NZ On Air for its support as part of the GDSR, and the accreditation requirements form part of your contract when you receive the rebate.
It is important that New Zealanders know that your business has been provided taxpayer dollars via the GDSR – having this consistent accreditation on your website and in your game helps to reinforce the value of the rebate to Aotearoa New Zealand and helps build awareness of the GDSR.
As well as the GDSR Animated and GDSR Static Logo folders, below you can also find the GDSR Style and Accreditation Guidelines. These Guidelines will help you understand the requirements for use of the logo as well as where and how they must appear within your business’ website, in your game website, game credits or loading page, if applicable.
Should you have any further queries around use of the GDSR logo assets, please contact: communications@nzonair.govt.nz.
Events
To view the webinar on the Game Development Sector Rebate scheme on 3 April 2024, you can view it here. Or you can see the slide deck for the presentation below.
To view the webinar on the Game Development Sector Rebate scheme on 14 Feb 2024, you can view it here.
If you missed our webinar on the Game Development Sector Rebate scheme on 17 October 2023, you can view it here.
Rebate Decisions
- 2Up Games
- A44
- Balancing Monkey Games
- Beyond Studios
- Blind Squirrel Games
- CamShaft Software
- CerebralFix
- Deep Field Games
- Digital Confectioners
- Dinosaur Polo Club*
- Dreamloft Games
- Gfactor
- Grinding Gear Games
- Hashbane Interactive
- Janzen IP Co
- Flightless
- Mighty Eyes
- Mytona
- Niantic Aotearoa NZ
- Ninja Kiwi
- Outerdawn
- PikPok
- RiffRaff Games
- RocketWerkz
- Runaway
- Sharpmind Games
- Space Rock Games
- StaplesVR
- Synty Studios
- Usual Suspects Studios
- Wētā Workshop
- Zero King
*NZ On Air's GDSR Programme Director Chantelle Cole was the CEO of Dinosaur Polo Club prior to joining the agency. NZ On Air has a strict Conflict of Interest policy that ensured she had no involvement with the rebate assessment for this company.
The following nine studios only received six months funding during the Pilot Phase round, so could only access the remainder of the year’s funding from the Year One general registration round.
- A44
- CerebralFix
- Futureverse
- Grinding Gear Games
- Mytona
- Ninja Kiwi
- PikPok
- RocketWerkz
- Wētā Workshop
Job Vacancies
Any other new roles will be advertised in our GDSR newsletters. If you haven't signed up for our newsletters, you can do so here.
Contact Us
If you have any queries on the GDSR, please feel free to get in touch with us. Just email
gamesrebate@nzonair.govt.nz.
Also, regardless of whether you are going to register as an eligible business for the GDSR, you can subscribe to newsletter updates from NZ On Air about the scheme. To subscribe, just click on the sign up button below.