Another storefront just booted a provocative indie — why this fight matters

Why this storefront saga actually matters for gamers

This caught my attention because Santa Ragione’s situation with Horses is textbook modern indie anxiety: a small studio builds a compact, challenging game about trauma, gets official ratings, and still finds itself bounced off multiple big storefronts with vague reasons. If you’re tired of opaque moderation decisions deciding what games you can buy, this is the kind of fight worth watching.

• Santa Ragione says Horses was banned from Steam in 2023 and pulled from Epic days before launch for alleged policy violations, including an Adults Only label.
• The studio points out ESRB M and PEGI 18 ratings, pixelated/censored nudity, and that the scenes exist to critique-not titillate.
• Horses remains available on GOG and Itch.io, but losing Steam/Epic visibility is a major commercial blow for a small team.

Breaking down the bans – what’s the store side, and what’s the real issue?

The public timeline is messy but revealing. Santa Ragione says Steam flagged Horses back in 2023, asserting the game “appears… to depict sexual conduct involving a minor.” The developer denies that entirely and says Steam didn’t provide specifics or a chance to appeal in any meaningful way. That alone is alarming: an accusation that serious, with no transparent explanation.

Epic Games Store initially approved Horses, then reversed course less than 24 hours before launch. Epic cited “inappropriate content” and a store policy against Adults Only material-despite the developer pointing to ESRB M and PEGI 18 ratings and the fact that nudity in Horses is pixelated and contextualized as critique. Humble Store briefly offered the game DRM-free and then removed it without comment. Meanwhile, GOG and Itch.io still sell it.

Why this matters beyond a single indie

Steam controls the discoverability engine for PC games. Epic is the fastest-growing alternative. Lose those two and a small studio evaporates into obscurity—sales and future projects can die overnight. Santa Ragione is not a giant publisher; they rely on the window those stores open onto a huge audience. This isn’t only about one game’s content; it’s about which creative expressions platforms will permit and how they enforce those rules.

The bigger pattern here is structural: platforms use broad terms like “inappropriate” or “abusive” and often refuse to publish the evidence that led to a takedown. That creates fertile ground for inconsistent decisions—and for bad-faith complaints to succeed because the accused party can’t see or counter the specifics.

The gamer’s perspective — should you play Horses?

Horses is a roughly three-hour, first-person psychological horror piece. Its unsettling bait-and-switch—humans living as livestock wearing equine masks—intends to critique violence, control, and religious/political oppression. There are a handful of pixelated sexual scenes, two of them off-camera; Santa Ragione emphasizes these scenes are narrative tools, not erotic content.

If you gravitate toward artful, provocative indies that unsettle you and make uncomfortable arguments, Horses sounds like a deliberate, concise experience worth seeking out. But be warned: the themes are heavy and potentially triggering. The fact it has ESRB M and PEGI 18 ratings means it was already vetted through established rating bodies—yet storefronts still balked.

What this means for developers (and some practical advice)

• Don’t put all your eggs on one storefront: diversify with GOG, Itch.io, direct sales, and DRM-free options.
• Document everything during submission and demand clear, written explanations when flagged—the public pressure that follows can help, but only if you can explain your case.
• Anticipate content disputes if you tackle taboo topics and plan marketing around contextualizing your intent (not just shock value).

Santa Ragione has appealed decisions and is using public messaging to force transparency. That’s an effective — if exhausting — strategy for small teams who can’t bear the financial hit of being invisible on dominant stores.

TL;DR — Cut through the PR

Horses is a short, provocative horror game that got ESRB M and PEGI 18 ratings but still ran into heavy-handed removals from Steam, Epic, and Humble. This isn’t just a content argument: it’s a demonstration of how opaque platform policies and low-visibility appeals can wipe out a small studio. Gamers who want diverse, challenging voices in games should support alternative storefronts and demand clearer rules and transparent appeals from the big platforms.