The indie horror game Horses from developer Santa Ragione has been on a wild ride across digital storefronts. After being banned from Steam and Epic Games Store, the game launched on Humble Store on December 2, 2025, only to be suddenly delisted the next day. Just hours later, Humble quietly brought it back after a full review, making it one of the few major platforms still willing to sell the controversial title.
What Happened With Humble Store
On December 3, 2025, Humble Store abruptly removed Horses from its digital shelves without warning or explanation to the developers. Pietro Righi Riva, co-founder of Santa Ragione, confirmed that the game had been selling a DRM-free version since launch day, but suddenly the store page at humblebundle.com/store/horses was completely gone. The studio had no idea why and reached out to Humble for answers.
Hours later, the situation took an unexpected turn. Humble relisted Horses after conducting a full internal review of the game’s content. According to Riva, Humble’s team saw the press coverage surrounding the game’s bans from other platforms and temporarily delisted it to reevaluate. After reviewing the actual game content themselves, they determined it was acceptable for their platform and restored the listing. The developers expressed gratitude but wished Humble had informed them the review process was happening.
Why Steam and Epic Banned Horses
The controversy started when Steam rejected Horses before launch, citing content that appeared to depict sexual conduct involving a minor. The problematic scene featured a young daughter who wanted to ride one of the farm’s “horses,” which in the game are actually naked adult humans wearing horse masks. An interactive dialogue sequence showed the player leading a naked adult woman by a lead while a young girl sat on her shoulders.
Developer Santa Ragione quickly revised the scene, changing the daughter character to a twenty-something woman to avoid the juxtaposition and because the dialogue about societal structure worked better with an older character. Despite this change and multiple attempts to contact Steam representatives, the platform has not reversed its decision. Steam’s policy apparently prohibits resubmission once content is flagged for involving minors in any context deemed inappropriate.
Epic Games Store banned Horses just 24 hours before its December 2 launch, despite having previously approved the game. Epic cited violations of its inappropriate content and hateful or abusive content policies, claiming the game received an adults-only rating and contained explicit depictions of sexual behavior. The company also stated the game promoted abuse and animal abuse, which Santa Ragione disputes, arguing Horses is actually a strong critique of violence and abuse.
What Horses Is Actually About
Horses is a first-person narrative horror game that combines gameplay with live-action sequences. Players take on the role of Anselmo, a naive young farmhand who arrives at a rural farm for a two-week job. What he discovers is deeply disturbing: the farm’s livestock are not animals but enslaved humans wearing horse masks and living as horses.
Over the course of 14 in-game days lasting about three to four hours of real-world gameplay, players complete increasingly distressing farm tasks while uncovering the horrifying truth. The story involves Anselmo befriending a female “horse” named Linda who is in contact with Fiore, a male “horse” planning to free everyone. The narrative explores themes of slavery, abuse, complicity, and moral culpability through its surrealist horror lens.
The game comes with extensive content warnings for physical violence, psychological abuse, graphic depictions of slavery, domestic violence, sexual content, suicide, and misogyny. Santa Ragione has been transparent that all nudity is pixelated and the game contains only four brief, censored sexual sequences, with two happening mostly off-camera. The developers emphasize the game is a critique of abuse, not a promotion of it.
Where You Can Actually Buy Horses
Despite the bans from major platforms, Horses is available through several storefronts. After Humble relisted the game, it joins GOG as one of the few mainstream distributors carrying it. In fact, Horses has become a bestseller on GOG, topping the platform’s charts amid the censorship controversy. The game is also available on Itch.io, which has a reputation for hosting more experimental and controversial indie titles.
| Platform | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Steam | Banned | Rejected before launch, no resubmission allowed |
| Epic Games Store | Banned | Pulled 24 hours before launch after initial approval |
| Humble Store | Available | Delisted briefly, then relisted after review |
| GOG | Available | Became a bestseller amid controversy |
| Itch.io | Available | No issues reported |
The Stakes For Santa Ragione
The bans represent more than just lost sales for Santa Ragione. The studio invested approximately $100,000 to develop Horses, with half that amount raised from friends. When Steam rejected the game, Riva stated the studio faced a high risk of closure. Steam and Epic represent the two largest PC gaming storefronts, and being banned from both platforms severely limits a game’s commercial viability.
The situation highlights how much power platform holders have over indie developers. Even after Santa Ragione revised the controversial content and provided detailed explanations about the game’s artistic intent and content warnings, Steam has refused to engage in dialogue about reconsidering. Epic similarly maintained its decision despite the developer’s appeals. For a small studio that spent years and significant resources developing a game, having it rejected at the last minute creates an existential threat.
The Bigger Censorship Debate
The Horses controversy has reignited debates about content moderation, artistic freedom, and platform power in the gaming industry. Supporters argue the game is a legitimate work of art exploring difficult themes through horror, similar to disturbing films that receive theatrical releases. They point out that GOG and Humble found the content acceptable after reviewing it, suggesting the other platforms may be overreacting to prevent potential backlash.
Critics counter that platforms have every right to decide what content they’re comfortable hosting, especially when it involves potentially sensitive subject matter. Some suspect there may be additional problematic elements beyond the revised scene that Santa Ragione hasn’t fully addressed, given that different platforms seem to have different concerns. The fact that Epic rejected what could have been a no-cost exclusive raises questions about what specifically made them uncomfortable.
FAQs
Why did Humble remove Horses from its store?
Humble temporarily delisted Horses on December 3, 2025, after seeing press coverage about the game’s controversial content and bans from other platforms. The storefront wanted to conduct its own review of the game before continuing to sell it. After completing the review, Humble relisted Horses, determining the content was acceptable for their platform.
What makes Horses so controversial?
Horses features enslaved nude humans wearing horse masks living as livestock on a farm. The original version included a scene with a young girl riding on the shoulders of a naked adult woman being led like a horse. Steam rejected the game citing content that appeared to involve a minor in inappropriate situations, even though the developers stated the scene was not sexual in nature.
Did the developers change the controversial content?
Yes, Santa Ragione revised the scene by changing the young daughter character to a twenty-something woman. The developers made this change both to avoid the problematic juxtaposition and because the dialogue about societal structure worked better with an older character. Despite this revision, Steam and Epic have not reversed their bans.
Where can I buy Horses now?
Horses is currently available on Humble Store, GOG, and Itch.io. The game has become a bestseller on GOG following the controversy. It remains banned from Steam and Epic Games Store with no indication those platforms will reconsider their decisions.
How long does Horses take to complete?
A full playthrough of Horses takes approximately three to four hours. The game spans 14 in-game days at the farm, with players experiencing unique interactions and increasingly disturbing tasks each day. It combines first-person gameplay with live-action FMV sequences.
What is Santa Ragione’s response to the bans?
Santa Ragione has been transparent about the situation and maintains that Horses is a critique of violence and abuse, not a promotion of it. The studio provided detailed content descriptions showing all nudity is pixelated and sexual content is brief and censored. They’ve expressed hope that Steam and Epic will reconsider based on the actual game content.
Could the bans cause Santa Ragione to close?
Developer Pietro Righi Riva stated that being rejected from Steam put the studio at high risk of closure. The game cost approximately $100,000 to develop, with half raised from friends. Being banned from the two largest PC gaming storefronts severely limits the game’s commercial potential and threatens the studio’s financial viability.
Conclusion
Humble’s decision to relist Horses after its own review demonstrates that not all platforms view the game’s content the same way. While Steam and Epic have drawn firm lines refusing to distribute the title, Humble and GOG determined the game was acceptable after examining it themselves. The situation raises important questions about how much power digital storefronts have over indie developers and where the line should be drawn between protecting users and allowing artistic expression. For Santa Ragione, the controversy has created both an existential business threat and unexpected publicity that drove Horses to the top of GOG’s bestseller charts. Whether Steam and Epic will eventually reconsider remains to be seen, but for now, players interested in this provocative horror experience have limited options for where to purchase it.