As we approach the second year of the Game Development Sector Rebate, we've been hard at work behind the scenes, fine-tuning and enhancing our processes. Thanks to invaluable feedback from you, our assessment team and our partners at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, we’ve made several refinements to ensure a smoother experience.
2025 Dates
Below are the confirmed dates for GDSR Year Two. Full details of the GDSR Year Two timeline, along with helpful reference documents such as the GDSR Guidelines, are available on the GDSR page of our website.
- Registration Opens: Monday, 3 February
- Registration Closes: Friday, 28 February
- Applications Open: Tuesday, 1 April
- Applications Close: Friday, 9 May
- Assessment Period: May-June
- Decisions Announced: July
- Payments Issued: July- August
Registration and Application Updates
In response to feedback, we’ve also made several improvements to streamline the GDSR registration and application process, making it smoother and more efficient for both you and our assessment team.
Registration:
- We’re updating the registration and application process to avoid duplicate information requests and to keep things moving efficiently.
- This year, we won’t be asking for financial projections. Instead, we’ll simply ask you to confirm that you’re confident your studio’s eligible game development expenditure for the 2024-25 financial year will exceed $250k.
- The Statement of Readiness is now part of the registration form itself, eliminating the need for a separate process. After NZ On Air has reviewed your registration, you’ll receive a Letter of Acknowledgment or notice of decline.
Application:
We’ve extended the application window from four to six weeks, allowing extra time to finalise submissions. We’ve also introduced standardised templates to make applying for the GDSR even easier. These templates ensure that all required information is provided upfront, minimising any back and forth between applicants and our assessment team. You’ll be able to start filling them out in advance, giving you a head start and making the final submission process much easier.
- GDSR Financial Details Template: This template guides you through all required financial information, including eligible expenses, employee data, company structure, and profit and loss details. Designed as a living document, it is something you can continue to update and use year after year.
- GDSR Game Details Template: This template covers the specific information regarding your game development projects from the last financial year, with helpful examples to clarify the required level of detail.
Software Eligibility Update
Project management software used by game development team members for activities like code reviews, asset integration, testing and branch integration is now eligible for the rebate.
To help you determine which software expenses qualify, we have also developed a Software Eligibility Guidelines document which you can find here. You will also need to specify how your team uses that software in the Financial Details Template.
Accreditation Guidelines Update
We are in the process of refining our Accreditation Guidelines based on insights from the first year of the GDSR and valuable feedback from studios.
As a reminder, accreditation is a requirement for receiving the GDSR, so if your studio is awarded the rebate, you will need to include accreditation on your business website, game website and within your games.
Accreditation serves two key purposes. First, it promotes New Zealand internationally as a vibrant and well-supported game development hub. Government backing sends a strong message of confidence, making studios more attractive to platforms, publishers and investors, and reinforces New Zealand’s games industry as a stable, promising ecosystem for investment, partnerships and project funding. Second, accreditation provides transparency for New Zealanders, showing them which games and companies have been supported through the GDSR.
If there’s a valid reason you’re unable to include accreditation where required, please reach out to our Games team at NZ On Air at gamesrebate@nzonair.govt.nz — they’ll work with you to find a reasonable solution.
We will let you know once the revised Accreditation Guidelines are available on our website.
Upcoming GDSR Webinars
We will have webinars in the lead-up to the GDSR Year Two registration and application phases. The first session, presented by NZ On Air and hosted by the NZGDA, will be held before Christmas and will provide a broad overview of the GDSR, perfect for first-time applicants or anyone wanting a refresher. There will also be a Q&A at the end for any specific questions.
- Date: Thursday, 5 December
- Time: 3pm–4pm
- Platform: Zoom
To find out more about the webinar and to register, go to the NZGDA event page or email the team at info@nzgda.com.
A second webinar, with a detailed walkthrough of the application process, will be held in the first quarter of 2025. We will share more information on that at a later date so make sure you are signed up to receive our GDSR Updates.
NZGDC 2024:
Programme Director of the GDSR Chantelle Cole and Programme Manager Tobias Last presented at the recent NZ Game Developers Conference (NZGDC) giving an in-depth look at the GDSR and providing valuable insights and data-driven projections for the industry's future.
You can view that presentation here on our website – Navigating the future: Insights from the NZ GDSR.
New NZ On Air Website
NZ On Air will be launching a new website in the new year. We will keep you posted once that is live but, in the meantime, just be aware that things might look a little bit different. The site has been designed to make sure you can find everything you need to know about NZ On Air and the GDSR much more easily.
More Information
For more details on the GDSR Year Two timeline and process, go to our website. Plus, if you haven't already, make sure you also subscribe to our newsletter to make sure you get all the most up-to-date information on the GDSR.
Finally, if you have any questions, feel free to email us at gamesrebate@nzonair.govt.nz and we will be happy to help.