An upcoming horror game with a somewhat bizarre premise gets banned from Steam but will still be releasing on 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.
