Bizarre Horror Game Banned on Steam Is Coming to Other Platforms
The upcoming horror game Horses that has been definitively banned from Steam will be coming to other platforms upon release, and GOG has taken the reins to try to help it succeed. The Milan-based studio Santa Ragione has spent the last decade building a reputation for creating artful games that push players onto uncomfortable moral terrain. The developer’s narrative-based projects lean into atmosphere and asking social questions, and its new title Horses will continue the trend, even without a Steam release.
According to Santa Ragione, which may already be known to some gamers for its survival horror adventure game Saturnalia, Horses admittedly offers an unsettling experience and intentionally makes players face some difficult decisions. It tells the story of a man who goes to work on a farm to care for the horses, only to find that said “horses” are actually naked people in horse masks. Kept chained or carrying riders around on their shoulders, the horses are fed carrots, propaganda, humiliation, and violence. As the FAQ on the game’s official website states, the goal is to “produce challenging, adult storytelling” using “grotesque, subversive imagery” to question “the dynamics of totalitarian power and the ethics of personal responsibility.”
Steam Banned Horses, Other Platforms Welcome It
Steam doesn’t seem to have appreciated what Santa Ragione is attempting to accomplish and, in 2023, banned the horror game from being distributed on the platform. The developer contends that the stated reason — its explicit content — is not applicable to Horses. In the two years since, the company has attempted to get clarification, obtain another review, or be given some means to get the game on Steam. But Valve has definitively stated that there will be no reversal of the decision. Fortunately for the developer, Horses will be releasing on GOG, Epic Games Store, Itch.io, and the Humble Store on December 2 for $4.99.
For its part, GOG has taken steps to help bring Horses to gamers’ attention. It is currently promoting the title on its homepage carousel, has opened preorders, pushed it to the press, and posted about it on social media. In a Twitter post, the company stated, “We’ve always believed that players should be able to choose the experiences that speak to them.” It is asking those interested to “celebrate [Santa Ragione’s] creativity” by picking up a copy of the game.
However, the support of gamers and heavy hitters like GOG may not be enough. Horses being banned from Steam, the largest online PC gaming storefront, may ring the death knell for Santa Ragione. Not only will the game miss out on a huge percentage of sales, but investors are uninterested in funding a title that can’t be released on Steam. Though the studio has had two years to prepare for its current conundrum and has saved up enough money to support Horses for six months post release, after that, the financial situation will become “completely unsustainable.” The devs, says the FAQ, have already begun lining up employment elsewhere.
Steam Has Banned Games Before for Various Reasons
Of course, this isn’t the only time Valve has chosen to ban or remove titles from its online platform. In July, Steam began removing games that violated the standards set by its payment processors’ terms and conditions, namely those that had adult-themed content. Many users soon began signing a petition against these guideline changes, which remain unchanged nevertheless.
But even before that, there have been games removed from the storefront for various reasons. In 2018, that included the game Active Shooter, which simulated school shooting scenarios, after a petition objecting to its release on the platform gained more than 180,000 signatures. That same year, 179 titles were also banned from Steam because they barely qualified to be called video games, being only, as the company dubbed them, “game shaped objects.”
As recently as July 2025, Final Girl Games’ project VILE: Exhumed was banned from Steam for including “sexual content with depictions of real people,” despite the game being primarily text-based. The developer refused to censor the game, which openly contains some adult themes, just to be allowed on Steam. VILE: Exhumed does, however, offer the option to censor explicit photos while playing.
Source: Santa Ragione