The video game industry is facing a fresh censorship debate after the indie horror title Horses was banned from two of the world's largest digital storefronts. The game, developed by award-winning Italian studio Santa Ragione, was pulled from sale on Steam and the Epic Games Store just before its scheduled launch.
The Storefront Ban and Immediate Fallout
On 25 November, Santa Ragione revealed that Steam, the dominant PC gaming marketplace, had prohibited the sale of Horses. A week later, the Epic Games Store followed suit, removing the game right before its planned release on 2 December. The title was also briefly delisted from the Humble Store before being reinstated a day later.
This sequence of events has, perhaps inevitably, fuelled significant interest in the game. It has subsequently rocketed to the top of the charts on alternative platforms that continue to sell it, namely itch.io and GOG. The central question, however, remains unanswered to many: why was it banned?
Inside the Disturbing World of Horses
The game opens with a comprehensive content warning, alerting players to themes including physical violence, psychological abuse, slavery, torture, domestic abuse, sexual assault, and misogyny. Players assume the role of Anselmo, a young Italian man sent to work on a remote farm for the summer.
The horror is established almost immediately. The farm's "horses" are, in fact, nude humans with permanently affixed horse heads. Anselmo's menial daily tasks—chopping wood, tending a garden—are interspersed with deeply unsettling duties, such as burying a "horse" body found hanging from a tree.
Despite the grim subject matter, the game's presentation is deliberately restrained. It employs simplistic, crude graphics that blur explicit details. Acts of violence, such as whipping, are depicted with blurry, unreal textures. The horror is largely psychological, built on a pervasive atmosphere of dread and the incongruity of mundane chores in a hellish environment.
Official Reasons and Industry Debate
Valve, Steam's owner, stated its content review team assessed Horses in 2023. "After our team played through the build and reviewed the content, we gave the developer feedback about why we couldn't ship the game on Steam," a spokesperson told PC Gamer. After a reconsideration request, the final decision to block the game was upheld.
Epic Games Store informed Santa Ragione that the game violated its content guidelines on "Inappropriate Content" and "Hateful or Abusive Content." The developer claims no specific details were provided about which content triggered the ban.
This has ignited a broader conversation that arguably overshadows the game itself. The debate now centres on the limits of video games as an art form and the power of storefronts to act as gatekeepers. Critics of the ban argue that Horses is a grotesque but not gratuitous meditation on power and violence, presented with an arthouse sensibility reminiscent of silent Italian cinema.
Ultimately, the controversy surrounding Horses has proven more profound and discussion-worthy than its actual content. While undeniably disturbing, the game's lack of explicit imagery has left many questioning whether its removal was a necessary safeguard or an act of artistic censorship.
