1348 Ex Voto Draws Conspiracy Over Italian Video Game Tax Relief

1348 Ex Voto, a third-person action-adventure from Sedleo published by Dear Villagers, launched on March 12 and currently holds a Metacritic score of 54 alongside a user score of 1.1. The sharp divide in ratings has been fuelled by an online backlash focused on the presence of lesbian romance in the game, and a recent discovery that the project received roughly €656,131 in tax credits and grants from 2021 to 2024 via the Italian Ministry of Culture’s Video Games Tax Relief program.

Some critics seized on the funding to claim Italian taxpayers backed “propaganda,” even though the game’s LGBTQ+ content is minimal; PCGamesN’s Nat Smith wrote that you “never see so much as a tender brush of hands” in the story. There’s no evidence the tax relief award was tied to the game’s romantic elements.

The Video Games Tax Relief scheme grants up to 100 points toward a “Culturally Valuable” label, with 70 points required to qualify.

Italy

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