HORSES launches Dec. 2 — Steam banned Santa Ragione’s black‑and‑white horror. What’s the real story?

Why this matters: a striking horror game blocked from the biggest PC storefront

The big news here isn’t just that HORSES – a black‑and‑white psychological horror game from Italian studio Santa Ragione – is releasing on December 2. It’s that you won’t find it on Steam because Valve reviewed a build in June 2023 and declined to publish it, without ever giving the developer a clear reason. For players this is an oddity; for the studio it’s a potential existential problem.

• HORSES releases Dec 2 on GOG, Epic Games Store, Humble and itch.io – not Steam.
• Valve tested a build in June 2023 and banned it; Santa Ragione says appeals and requests for clarification were ignored.
• The game uses grotesque, adult‑oriented imagery to explore power, faith and violence — developer calls Valve’s move opaque censorship.
• Missing Steam will hurt discoverability and could jeopardize Santa Ragione’s finances.

Breaking down the ban — what we actually know

Straight facts first: HORSES is a deliberately provocative, monochrome horror experience. The dev describes scenes of unnerving human bodies with horse heads and close‑ups designed to linger in your memory. If that sounds unsettling, good — that’s the point. Santa Ragione says it submitted HORSES to Steam in June 2023, and Valve played a build. Then Valve told the developer the game couldn’t be published on Steam and refused requests for detailed clarification, revisions, or appeals.

Valve’s public comment, relayed to GamesIndustry.biz, confirms they tested a build and decided the title “did not follow the required recommendations to be published on Steam,” but the company hasn’t publicly specified which guidelines HORSES violates. That vagueness is the real bone of contention — not necessarily the content itself.

Why this matters to players

For gamers, the immediate consequence is practical: if you buy PC games almost exclusively through Steam, you’ll have to use another launcher. That’s inconvenient. More importantly, Steam is still the dominant discovery platform; games not on Steam get far less organic visibility. HORSES could find a devoted niche — Santa Ragione already has a following from titles like Mediterranea Inferno — but the lack of Steam presence almost certainly lowers sales potential.

From a cultural standpoint, this raises questions about what content gatekeepers decide is acceptable. Valve often lets controversial or adult material through. So when a game that leans into grotesque, artistic horror is blocked with no public rationale, players and developers are right to ask: why? Transparency matters when one platform’s decisions can shrink an indie studio’s audience or even threaten its survival.

What this means for Santa Ragione and the indie ecosystem

Santa Ragione isn’t a AAA studio with a safety net. The team says they asked for compliance guidance and appealed for two years with no meaningful response. They also insist HORSES is a work for adults, using subversive imagery to explore mature themes — and they reject what they call “subjective obscenity” rules used to silence artists. That language is deliberate: this isn’t a studio trying to sneak porn past censors; it’s an auteur pushing boundaries.

The risk is real. Without Steam’s reach, HORSES is unlikely to recoup its investment, Santa Ragione warns. For an indie studio, that shortfall can mean layoffs or closure. This episode highlights a broader problem: when distribution power concentrates in a few storefronts, opaque moderation decisions become business risks, not just editorial ones.

Where to find HORSES and what to expect

If you want to play HORSES when it launches on December 2, your options are GOG, the Epic Games Store, Humble Store or itch.io. Expect an intense, art‑house horror experience meant for adults; the developer warns its imagery is intentionally grotesque and disturbing. If you’re into unsettling, visually striking games and you can tolerate strong content, this could be one of the more memorable indie horror releases this year.

But don’t mistake “artful” for “safe.” This is a polarizing title and Valve’s silence makes it harder to separate shock for shock’s sake from thoughtful provocation. Until Valve explains which rules were broken — if they ever do — the community will fill that vacuum with speculation, sympathy, and criticism.

TL;DR

HORSES is a bold, black‑and‑white horror game from Santa Ragione coming Dec 2 to several PC stores — just not Steam, which banned a June 2023 build without clear explanation. That opacity hurts discoverability and could threaten the studio’s finances. For players, the choice is simple: if you want to support daring indie horror, you’ll need to buy outside Steam; if you want the safety of a big storefront, you’ll be out of luck.