What is going on with indie horror game Horses?
The first person adventure developed by Andrea Lucco Borlera and Italian studio Santa Ragione has been banned by Steam. Surprisingly, Epic Games decided not to sell the game. This decision was made 24 hours before the game was supposed to launch on December 2, 2025. The decision is so abrupt that IGN published a review stating they got a copy of the game from the Epic Games Store. As of this post, Horses is still listed on the storefront’s website.
So far GOG, the Humble Store and Itch are the only storefronts willing to sell Horses for $5 USD.
Why is Horses so controversial?
The game follows the player character as he works on a farm for two weeks. One of the most disturbing aspects of the game is that the titular horses are actually naked humans wearing horse masks. (Note: all nudity featured in Horses is censored via pixelation).
The game is deliberately unsettling. It serves as a commentary on slavery, exploitation, oppression and the dehumanization all three inflicted onto its victims.
So what’s going on here? There are plenty of creepy games that explore similar themes.
Why did Steam ban Horses?
Nobody really knows why Steam chose to ban Horses. The company hasn’t given a clear explanation to the public or to the developers regarding the ban.
It’s speculated that Valve intentionally keeps their policy on mature content a mystery. Probably so they can’t be pressured into reversing their decisions in situations like this. If you can’t exploit any loopholes if you don’t know they exist. It also makes it harder for developers to find a workaround to allow uncensored content in their games.
Santa Ragione has a theory of what went wrong, which they shared in a FAQ listed on their website. Back in 2023, Steam made the developers submit an unfinished playable build after the game was flagged for review.
Steam ruled the game wouldn’t be sold due to a placeholder scene that according to Valve, depicted “sexual conduct involving a minor.”
The scene in question featured a young girl arriving at the farm with her father. Later, the girl is riding on the shoulders of one of the “horses”, a naked older woman.
Santa Ragione has made it clear that nothing sexual happens between the girl and the older woman. The girl was changed into a twenty-something woman. The studio also said that all of the characters featured in the game are over 20 years old. There’s evidence of their ages included in the game, but none of these adjustments was enough to change Steam’s stance.
It seems like Steam (or specifically Valve) have a zero tolerance for any type of content involving minors that could be considered sexual. Japanese visual novels have struggled with this policy since it’s common for the main characters to be high school students. Developers often have to submit a heavily censored version on Steam.
Santa Ragione also stated that the ban has nothing to do with the recent wave of adult games being removed from Steam due to pressure from payment processors.
Why did Epic Games change its mind about Horses?
Epic Games’s decision is even more confusing.
On December 1 at 5 p.m. CET, Santa Ragione received an email from Epic Games stating it wouldn’t distribute Horses due to “violations of the Epic Games Store Content Guidelines, specifically the ‘Inappropriate Content’ and ‘Hateful or Abusive Content’ policies”.
The storefront alleges that Horses contained frequent depictions of explicit or sexual content and accused the game of promoting animal abuse. They also claimed they would have to give Horses an AO (Adult’s Only) rating, which they don’t allow. According to the developers, Horses’ rating never went above M from the ESRB in the U.S. and 18 from the PEGI in Europe.
Santa Ragione appealed the decision, denying all allegations Epic Games made. They also pleaded with their contact at Epic to reconsider the ban since their team had already reviewed the builds for Horses for the past two months. The final build was actually approved for launch 18 days before launch.
Unfortunately, Santa Ragione received an automated message stating that Epic reviewed their appeal and “found the original decision was appropriately applied and will remain in place”.
Again, no clear explanation was given. Though it’s looking like Epic Games isn’t interested in distributing the game at all due to its disturbing nature. This is different from Steam’s stance, where a specific scene triggered an automatic ban.
What happens next?
Santa Ragione announced they will “wind down operations and face a high risk of closing the studio”. Around $100,000 USD was spent on Horses’ development over a two year period. Half of those funds were raised from close friends of the developers.
They do have enough money to support and update the game for the next six months. They just don’t have the resources to start new projects unless the game recoups its development costs.
And that seems unlikely since Steam makes up over 75% of the PC gaming market. The studio also admitted that getting banned on Steam made it difficult to find other distributors who were willing to pick up Horses.
The one bright side to all this drama is that Horses is getting a lot of attention from the gaming community. Many gamers have expressed sympathy for Santa Ragione while being very critical towards Steam and Epic Games’ refusal to sell the game.
Will the controversy encourage people to buy Horses? Can the game generate enough profits to save Santa Ragione from shutting down? Will the backlash be enough to force Epic or Steam to reverse their decisions? Only time will tell.
