Horror game “Horses” rejected by multiple PC stores
The surreal horror game “Horses” has been rejected by Steam and Epic Games and is even temporarily removed from the Humble Store – pure arbitrariness?
(Image: Santa Ragione)
The indie horror game “Horses” is causing discussions in the gaming community about the power of PC stores. The title was first rejected by Steam and then, shortly before release, also by Epic Games. In the meantime, “Horses” was even removed from the Humble Store. Concrete explanations are lacking.
“Horses” is a surreal and artistically ambitious game in which players visit a farm where humans are kept like livestock. The title is disturbing but does not contain particularly graphic violence. Rather, it seems the PC stores may be deterred by sexually suggestive content.
Steam already said “no” in 2023
At least that's what the development studio Santa Ragione assumes, as Steam rejected the title back in 2023. In a blog post, the team describes a potentially critical scene in which a young girl rides on the shoulders of a naked woman (as a "horse"). However, Steam operator Valve has never explicitly confirmed why the title was rejected, the team writes.
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To save the Steam release, the character of the young girl was replaced with an adult woman, Santa Ragione further explains. Nevertheless, Valve's veto remained. Why? "We don't know for sure," Santa Ragione writes in the blog post. "But we believe that Steam intentionally keeps its guidelines opaque so that the platform does not have to adhere to clear rules and can adapt decisions at any time as it sees fit." Valve merely informed the team that Steam could not legally distribute "Horses".
Epic backs out at the last second
So the indie team tried its luck with the Epic Games Store. In fact, a build of the game was initially accepted there and even distributed to review media like IGN – the US gaming magazine gave it 7 out of 10 points. However, one day before the release on December 2nd, Epic apparently had a spontaneous change of heart and removed “Horses” from the store. “Once again, no specific indication of problematic content in the game was given – only general and demonstrably false claims that it violated content guidelines. Our objection was rejected twelve hours later without further explanation,” write the developers of “Horses”.
One of the platforms offering “Horses” is the Humble Store. But even there, “Horses” was temporarily removed from the assortment shortly after launch. The Humble team initiated a content check based on the reporting and removed the game during that time, Santa Ragione explained to IGN. Humble concluded that no game content justified a ban, and the game has been available there again since then. Neither Humble, Epic, nor Steam have commented publicly.
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Such a situation is not only annoying for developers but potentially existential – without Steam and the Epic Games Store, an indie PC game loses a large part of its potential audience. However, the case also concerns parts of the gaming community who would normally have had little interest in “Horses”. Because it shows the power of the major storefronts and the powerlessness of developers whose economic survival is largely tied to seemingly arbitrary decisions made by platform operators. The bans of “Horses” have attracted significant international attention and are likely to benefit the niche horror game more than harm it in the end – other games in similar situations may have significantly less luck.
Available at GOG
The case of “Horses” is reminiscent of the situation in September, when Steam and itch.io removed numerous games with sexual content from their stores under pressure from payment service providers. However, the team behind “Horses” insists that the horror game is free of pornography of any kind.
Horses can be purchased from GOG, among other places: The Polish platform from CD Projekt has even publicly endorsed the horror game: “We are proud to give ‘Horses’ a home,” GOG writes in an X post. “We have always believed that players should be able to choose the experiences that appeal to them.” Both on GOG and itch.io, “Horses” is currently a bestseller.
(dahe)
