Disturbing horror game is banned from Steam leaving potentially hundreds of employees out of work
The ban may result in the entire shutdown of the developer’s studio
A disturbing horror game has been banned from Steam, which will potentially leave hundreds of employees out of work.
The indie horror game Horses is set to launch tomorrow but one place it won’t be available is on Steam after the firm banned the game from its platform.
According to developers, the reasons behind this move are still unclear following two years of back-and-forth and this may result in the entire shutdown of the developer’s studio.
However, in a review of the game, Steam stated:”Regardless of a developer’s intentions with their product, we will not distribute content that appears, in our judgment, to depict sexual conduct involving a minor.”
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Game developer Pietro Righi Riva of Italian studio Santa Ragione disagrees with the decision, claiming that all characters within the game are over the age of 20 ‘as communicated by their appearance and through dialogue and documents that you will encounter in the game’.
According to a report by IGN, an FAQ obtained by the outlet stated: “While it does contain some sexual elements, the intent is never to arouse. It uses challenging, unconventional material to encourage discussion. It invites players to examine why something feels the way it does, what it says about the characters and systems at work, and where their limits lie. It is about tension, not erotic content. (We apologize if we got your hopes up for horse porn.)”
Although one scene may be the cause for the ban as the FAQ went on to explain: “The daughter wants to ride one of the horses (in the game the “horses” are humans wearing a horse mask) and gets to pick which one. What 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. The scene is not sexual in any way, but it is possible that the juxtaposition is what triggered the flag.
“We 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.”
Many people have taken to social media to react to the ban, with one user writing on Reddit: “I don't agree with their choices or what they did at all because it's gross, but I will say that horse gear in general is a much bigger fetish than you may think.”
Another said: “Bro they're making a game about riding naked people wearing horse gear. I don't think these devs are doing a lot of (rational) thinking about much of anything…”
A third person joked: “As people said below it had been submitted prior in 2023 and Steam told them neigh.”
And a fourth added: “They removed it, and it’s still been banned. I don’t really see a reason for the game to still be banned.”