{"id":422306,"date":"2025-12-03T18:08:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T18:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/422306\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T18:08:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T18:08:16","slug":"horses-ban-from-gaming-platforms-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/422306\/","title":{"rendered":"Horses\u2019 ban from gaming platforms, explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

Horses, a first-person narrative horror game, was banned from the Epic Games Store<\/a> just hours before it was set to launch on December 2nd. Then, a day after launch, the Humble store banned it as well<\/a>. The decision shocked the developers at Santa Ragione, makers of the critically respected Saturnalia<\/a>, as these storefronts were the homes they\u2019d found for their game two years before it was preemptively banned from Steam.<\/p>\n

Valve and Epic say Horses violates their sexual content policies. Humble hasn\u2019t yet said why it banned the game after hosting it for several hours post-launch. However, Santa Ragione claims neither Epic nor Valve has clearly explained what exactly in the game is objectionable, and that these decisions have put the studio in peril of shutting down<\/a>. The back-and-forth has catapulted Horses from a little-known prestige indie title to the next battleground in the fight between game storefronts, indie developers, content policies, and creative expression.<\/p>\n

Though all the action kicked off late last month, Horses\u2019 story officially began two years ago. In a lengthy FAQ<\/a>, the developers explained that in 2023, Horses was rejected during Steam\u2019s review process without explanation. \u201cSteam\u2019s policy grants broad discretion to refuse titles without providing detailed explanations. In our case, they simply stated they could not legally distribute Horses without clarifying why,\u201d the FAQ reads.<\/p>\n

\"Black<\/a><\/p>\n

In Horses, you play as a farmhand at a ranch where the horses are human. Image: Santa Ragione<\/p>\n

In an interview with IGN<\/a>, Pietro Righi Riva, one half of the team at Santa Ragione, said that the ban might have been caused by a scene involving a man and his daughter visiting a ranch where the titular \u201chorses\u201d are humans wearing horse masks. The daughter wants to ride one of the horses, which the player facilitates. \u201cWhat followed was an interactive dialogue sequence where the player is leading, by a lead as if they were a horse, a naked adult woman with a young girl on her shoulders,\u201d Riva said.<\/p>\n

He said that scene was part of a rough demo sent to Steam to satisfy the platform\u2019s request for a playable build so Horses could get a \u201cComing Soon\u201d page. Riva said that, ultimately, the character was changed in the final build. \u201cWe have since changed the character in the scene to be a twenty-something woman, both to avoid the juxtaposition and more importantly because the dialogue delivered in that scene, which deals with the societal structure in the world of Horses, works much better when delivered by an older character.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur requests for review and appeal were denied over and over.\u201d<\/p>\n

The studio stresses that Steam never explicitly explained why Horses was banned nor responded to any of Santa Regione\u2019s follow-up appeals and communications. \u201cFor two years we asked for clarifications and a path to compliance, but we were directed to Steam\u2019s general guidelines and our requests for review and appeal were denied over and over,\u201d the FAQ reads.<\/p>\n

In November, after Santa Ragione shared Horses\u2019 release date<\/a> and the reason why it wouldn\u2019t be sold on Steam, Valve finally responded. A statement to gamedeveloper.com read<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter our team played through the build and reviewed the content, we gave the developer feedback about why we couldn\u2019t ship the game on Steam, consistent with our onboarding rules and guidelines<\/a>. A short while later the developer asked us to reconsider the review, and our internal content review team discussed that extensively and communicated to the developer our final decision that we were not going to ship the game on Steam.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Black-and-white<\/a><\/p>\n

The \u201chorses\u201d in Horses. Image: Santa Ragione Game Studio<\/p>\n

The studio says the Steam ban put the company in financial peril, as it \u201ccompletely erased our ability to find an external supporting publisher or partner to fund the rest of the game as no one in the industry considers an indie game that cannot be released on Steam to be viable.\u201d Though the developers were able to continue work on Horses through investments from friends, unless the game\u2019s a hit, they say the studio will shut down.<\/p>\n

In the two years since Horses\u2019 ban from Steam, Santa Ragione found several new homes for the game, including Itch.io, GOG, Humble, and the Epic Games Store. In a post on X<\/a>, DRM-free storefront GOG said, \u201cWe\u2019re proud to give Horses a home on GOG, giving players another way to enjoy the game. We\u2019ve always believed that players should be able to choose the experiences that speak to them.\u201d Humble, however, banned the game shortly after its launch there and has not responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

None of those stores has near the market share of Steam, but among them, Epic\u2019s has the most name recognition \u2014 making its last-minute ban a major blow.<\/p>\n

As with Steam, Epic didn\u2019t explain what in Horses triggered the ban, only referring to the policy on inappropriate and hateful \/ abusive content and the fact that games rated AO, or Adults Only, could not be distributed on EGS. (Unless it\u2019s an NFT \/ blockchain game, of course.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe immediately appealed their decision through all suggested channels,\u201d the developers\u2019 FAQ reads, adding that when Horses was submitted to the ESRB for rating, it received an Mature rating (ages 17 and up), which is, as of this writing, still prominently displayed on the game\u2019s EGS page<\/a>. Epic did not respond to a request to clarify the age rating discrepancy or the timing of the ban, referring instead to the statements Santa Ragione shared in its FAQ.<\/p>\n

Santa Ragione is very clear about the kind of content Horses contains. The lengthy content warning on the game\u2019s website<\/a> lists \u201cphysical violence, psychological abuse, gory imagery (mutilation, blood), depictions of slavery, physical and psychological torture, domestic abuse, sexual assault, suicide, and misogyny.\u201d It also makes sense that, out of an abundance of caution, Steam would ban the version of the game it saw with the father-and-daughter scene.<\/p>\n

\"Black-and-white<\/a><\/p>\n

Santa Ragione says all nudity in the game is censored via pixelation. Image: Santa Ragione Game Studio<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scene is not sexual in any way, but it is possible that the juxtaposition is what triggered the flag,\u201d Riva told IGN. But what makes less sense is the platform\u2019s refusal to reevaluate the game or at least explain its reasoning. \u201cWe believe Steam intentionally keeps its policy opaque so it does not have to stand by clear rules and can adjust decisions to whatever best serves the platform at a given moment,\u201d reads the FAQ.<\/p>\n

According to Santa Ragione, Epic\u2019s ban is even more confusing. It said EGS had a more complete version of the game for two months, \u201cwith the final achievements-ready build being approved for release 18 days prior to launch.\u201d Epic\u2019s decision to ban Horses reads like decision-makers getting scared in light of all the attention on the game.<\/p>\n

In spite of all this, Horses still is available, and the smattering<\/a> of reviews<\/a> have been mostly positive. But with large storefronts having significant power over games and studios, the reception may not be enough to keep Santa Ragione alive. The studio says that the combination of the Steam ban and the money it owes investors \u201cputs us in a completely unsustainable financial situation unless the game somehow recoups its development costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

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