A week after the indie horror game Horses was banned from Steam, and just one day before it was set to launch elsewhere, Epic Games has decided that it too will not allow the game to be sold on its storefront. Publisher Santa Ragione said in a blog update that Epic informed it of the decision at 5 pm CET/11 am ET on December 1, saying the game violates its policies on “inappropriate content” and “hateful or abusive content.”
Epic didn’t tell Santa Ragione how exactly Horses violated its guidelines, according to an email from the publisher sent to PC Gamer, but only made what it described as “broad and demonstrably incorrect claims” about it. Santa Ragione filed an appeal, but it was rejected 12 hours later with no further explanation. Epic also indicated the game could be updated to bring it into compliance, but “the email did not include any information on what would need to be changed,” Santa Ragione said, and even if it had there’d be no way to make extensive changes one day ahead of release.
Santa Ragione also questioned why Epic would redo the questionnaire at all, given that developers have to fill it out themselves in order to be allowed to sell their games in the first place. It further claimed that builds of Horses had already been submitted and reviewed by Epic, “with the final achievements-ready build being approved for release 18 days prior to launch.”
As it did following the Steam ban, Santa Ragione argued that Horses “does NOT contain explicit or frequent depictions of sexual behavior.”
“All nudity in the game is completely censored via pixelation,” the publisher wrote. “There is never any visible sexual act involving genitalia and all animations are stylized and unrealistic. Additionally, in the three hours of gameplay contained in the game, there are only four brief and censored sexual sequences, with two of them happening mainly off camera. And finally, we explained that the content presented does not in any way promote abuse (including animal abuse). The game is a strong critique of violence and abuse in general.”
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Horses does have some nudity, though, as well as adult themes, and that can be vexing for an industry that’s often more focused on selling product than making art, or even mere provocative statements—particularly when it’s already facing pressure from major payment processors over adult-oriented content. Epic has always been more selective about what it allows on its storefront than Steam, which is home to numerous hardcore sex games, so it’s not entirely surprising that Epic would bow out of Horses too.
But that it would wait until this last minute to make the move—literally the day before release—doesn’t speak especially highly of its processes, and it makes me wonder if this isn’t so much about the game as it is about the public’s perception of it, largely the result of Steam’s refusal to carry it.
Despite the Steam and Epic bans, Horses is still available on GOG, Itch.io, and the Humble Store: Humble had initially intended to distribute the game via Epic Store keys, but with the new ban in place it opted to go with a DRM-free direct download instead.
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