New York (Digital Gaming Media) Production Incentives

Be a qualified digital gaming media production entity, as defined, that creates and maintains digital game development industry jobs in New York State; submit an initial application before the commencement of production but not more than 90 days before the start of production along with a Diversity Plan that includes specific goals for hiring a workforce with a gender and racial/ethnicity make up reflective of the diversity of New Yok state; qualified production costs incurred and paid in New York State must be at least 75% of all digital gaming media production costs paid or incurred anywhere; include an in-game credit logo provided by the Department; and meet the minimum spending requirements of more than $100,000.

Qualified production costs are any digital gaming media production labor costs incurred and paid in New York State that are directly and predominantly related to the creation, production, or modification of the qualified digital gaming media production; up to $100,000 in wages and salaries paid to each individual, other than actors or writers (and if the production entity has more than ten employees, salaries to the CEO, CFO, president, treasurer or similar positions are also excluded), directly employed in the qualified digital gaming media production for services related to the development (including concept creation), design, production (including concept creation, and testing), and editing (including encoding) and compositing (including the integration of digital files for interaction by end users) of digital gaming media. Digital gaming production costs do not include: per diem, housing, and travel; and expenses related to distribution, marketing, publicity, promotion, and advertising. Up to four million dollars in qualified digital gaming media production costs per production shall be used in the calculation of this credit.

This program is administered on a first-come, first-served basis. The Empire State Digital Gaming Media Production Credit Program offers a refundable tax credit equal to 25% of qualified production costs in New York City and 35% of qualified costs incurred outside the MCTD. Under no circumstances may a single taxpayer receive more than $1.5 million in tax credits per year. A taxpayer shall claim the tax credit in the taxable year that begins in the year for which it is allocated. This program is scheduled to sunset on December 31, 2027.