He explained that horses were banned from gaming platforms

horsesA first-person narrative horror game, It has been banned from the Epic Games Store Just hours before its release date on December 2nd. Then the day after launch The Humble Store has blocked it as well. The decision shocked developers at Santa Ragioni, the makers of the device Critical respect Saturnaliasince these storefronts were the homes they found for their game two years before they preemptively banned it from Steam.

Says the valve and the saga horses Violates their sexual content policies. Humble has yet to say why the game was banned after being hosted for several hours after launch. However, Santa Ragione claims that Epic and Valve did not clearly state what exactly was unacceptable in the game, and that these decisions put the studio… In danger of closing. He jumped back and forth horses From an unknown indie title to the next battleground in the struggle between game storefronts, indie developers, content policies, and creative expression.

Although all the events started late last month, horsesThe story officially began two years ago. in Long questions and answersThe developers explained that in 2023, horses It was rejected during Steam’s review process without explanation. “Steam policy gives broad discretion to reject titles without providing detailed explanations. In our case, they simply stated that they could not legally distribute horses Without explaining why, the FAQ says.

In an interview with IGNPietro Righi Riva, one half of the team in Santa Ragioni, said the ban may have been triggered by a scene involving a man and his daughter visiting a farm where the titular “horses” are humans wearing horse masks. The daughter wants to ride one of the horses facilitated by the player. “What followed was an interactive dialogue sequence where the player leads the lead as if he were a horse, a naked adult woman with a little girl on her shoulders,” Riva said.

He said this scene was part of a rough demo sent to Steam to fulfill the platform’s request for a playable build horses You may get a “Coming Soon” page. Ultimately, the character was changed in the final build, Riva said. “We have since changed the character in the scene to a woman in her twenties, both to avoid juxtaposition and more importantly because the dialogue presented in that scene deals with the societal structure of the world. horsesIt works much better when delivered by an older character.

The studio confirms that Steam has not explicitly explained why horses He was blocked and did not respond to any of Santa Region’s follow-up calls and communications. “For two years, we have asked for clarification and a path to compliance, but have been directed to Steam’s general guidelines and repeatedly denied our requests for review and appeal,” the FAQ says.

In November, after Santa Ragioni subscriber horses‘ release date Valve finally responded and explained why it’s not sold on Steam. A Statement for gamedeveloper.com He reads:

“After our team went through the build and content review process, we provided feedback to developers on why we were unable to ship the game on Steam, in accordance with Our setup rules and guidelines. Shortly after, the developer asked us to reconsider the review, and our internal content review team discussed this extensively and informed the developer of our final decision that we would not ship the game on Steam.

The studio says the Steam ban puts the company at financial risk, because it “completely erased our ability to find a publisher or supporting third-party partner to finance the rest of the game as no one in the industry considers an indie game that can’t be released on Steam viable.” Although the developers managed to continue working horses With investments from friends, unless the game becomes a huge success, they say the studio will close.

In the two years since then horsesAfter being banned 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 XGOG told the DRM-free storefront, “We’re proud to give Horses a place on GOG, giving players another way to enjoy the game. We’ve always believed that players should be able to choose the experiences that suit them.” However, Humble banned the game shortly after launch and did not respond to a request for comment.

None of these stores have a market share close to Steam, but of them, Epic’s has the most name recognition — making its last-minute ban a big blow.

As with Steam, Epic hasn’t explained what’s in it horses He raised the ban, citing only the policy regarding inappropriate and hateful/offensive content and the fact that games rated AO, or Adults Only, cannot be distributed on EGS. (Unless it’s an NFT/blockchain game of course.)

“We immediately appealed their decision through all suggested channels,” the developer FAQ says, adding that when horses It has been submitted to the ESRB for evaluation, received a Mature rating (for ages 17 and up), and is, as of this writing, It’s still prominently displayed on the game’s EGS page. Epic did not respond to a request to clarify the discrepancy in the age rating or the timing of the ban, instead pointing to data shared by Santa Ragione in the FAQ.

Santa Ragioni is very clear about the type of content horses Includes. Lengthy content warning On the game website It lists “physical violence, psychological abuse, gory images (mutilation, blood), depictions of slavery, physical and psychological torture, domestic violence, sexual assault, suicide, and misogyny.” It also makes sense that out of an abundance of caution, Steam would ban the version of the game you saw with the father-daughter scene.

“The scene is not sexual in any way, but it is possible that the juxtaposition is what sparked the flag,” Riva said. IGN. But what is less logical is the platform’s refusal to re-evaluate the game or at least explain its reasons. “We believe Steam intentionally keeps its policy vague so it doesn’t have to adhere to clear rules and can tweak decisions to best serve the platform at a given moment,” the FAQ says.

According to Santa Ragione, Epic’s ban is even more confusing. EGS has had a more complete version of the game for two months, “with the final achievement-ready version approved 18 days before launch,” she said. Epic’s ban horses It reads like decision makers getting scared in light of all the interest in the game.

Despite all this, horses Still available, and trivial to Reviews It was mostly positive. But with big storefronts having so much power over games and studios, reception may not be enough to keep Santa Ragioni alive. The studio says the combination of the Steam ban and the money owed to investors “puts us in a completely unsustainable financial position unless the game somehow recovers its development costs.”