Another Store Bans This New Indie Game, And The Developer Has Questions

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The creator of the indie horror game Horses, Santa Ragione, recently shared that Steam blocked the game from being released back in 2023, even before it was finished. Now, just as Horses was scheduled to launch on the Epic Games Store this week, Epic has also banned it.

Santa Ragione published a detailed statement on their website, including messages from Epic Games explaining the cancellation of their game just before release. Epic cited violations of their rules against inappropriate, hateful, and abusive content. They also noted the game received an Adults Only rating, which prevents it from being sold on their store.

So, Santa Ragione just explained that Epic gave the green light to release the game a little over three weeks ago! Apparently, it’s officially rated ‘M for Mature’ here in the US by the ESRB, and PEGI 18 internationally. They also wanted to reiterate – and I really appreciate this – that ‘Horses’ isn’t some kind of explicit adult game, which has been a big misunderstanding.

Santa Ragione immediately challenged the decision through every available avenue, emphasizing that the game doesn’t feature explicit or frequent sexual content. All nudity is fully obscured with pixelation, and there are no visible sexual acts or realistic depictions of genitalia. The game includes only four short, censored sexual scenes within three hours of gameplay, and two of those are largely shown off-screen. We also clarified that the game does not promote any form of abuse, including animal abuse, but instead offers a strong condemnation of violence and abuse in general.

Despite a chance to challenge the decision, the ruling against Santa Ragione’s game has been confirmed, leading to its removal from the two largest PC gaming platforms. It may also be pulled from a third. The game was scheduled to launch on the Humble Store, but the listing has been taken down and is no longer available. TopMob has contacted Humble for more information.

Okay, so I’ve been following the story of ‘Horses,’ and it’s pretty wild. The developers, Santa Ragione, put about $100,000 into making it, but they were facing closure after getting kicked off Steam. Now, getting banned from the Epic Games Store probably made things even worse for them. Anyway, the game is out now on GOG and Itch.io for just $5. It’s not technically an ‘adults only’ game, but be warned, it’s seriously unsettling. The biggest twist? The ‘horses’ in the game aren’t actually horses. They’re people forced to wear horse masks and live like horses. It’s a really strange and disturbing concept.

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2025-12-03 18:39