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An unsettling indie game about horses keeps getting banned from stores (www.theverge.com)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/gaming@beehaw.org
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Horses, a first-person narrative horror game, was banned from the Epic Games Store just hours before it was set to launch on December 2nd. Then, a day after launch, the Humble store (temporarily) banned it as well. The decision shocked the developers at Santa Ragione, makers of the critically respected Saturnalia, as these storefronts were the homes they’d found for their game two years before it was preemptively banned from Steam.

Valve and Epic say Horses violates their sexual content policies. Humble hasn’t yet said why it banned the game.

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[–] 2 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Here: https://www.gog.com/en/game/horses play the game. There, thats a major marketplace right there and literally the best one.

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  • [+] 1 point 11 months ago (4 children)
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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (3 children)

    What systemic problems? The systemic problem of distributors not distributing games with children interacting with naked adults? Thats not a fucken problem unless you're a libertarian. The porn game crusade is a huge problem. This is not that. I don't believe this is the game that will push through complete freedom of creation. I also dont believe our current public zeitgeist is ready to handle the complex questions that arise from content like this. I didnt even say I didnt like the game. I havent played it. I'm sure its as thought provoking as Solarium or SOMA. But acting like this is a moral panic overreach of sensorship is a little much when its still available on one of the biggest game marketplaces available AND you'll get the offline installer for it. Go play it. I just might after all this and see what the hubub is actually about.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    GOG's market share is around 0.5 to 1%. Steam's is above 75%. So by comparison, GOG is tiny.

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  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Sounds like a business discussion was not had if they really are "serious abiut their product" like horses.wtf says they are. Thousands of games go on there each year and dont have this problem.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago*

    Isn't that part of the discussion? That Valve can just arbitrarily reject a game. Before the payment processors stepped in for example, which was also the time Valve "banned" Horses, Steam had games that had the four-letter r word in their description and Valve didn't care despite being contacted by Collective Shout. One could argue they're lying, but as someone who's worked with most major publishers, I can believe them, because Valve is almost impossible to reach. In my experience, and based on what I've been hearing, most of the time they simply don't reply to press requests. Instead they do these publicity stunts where Gabe Newell will occasionally reply to random people online, knowing the reply will be posted to social media, or he'll do an interview with a nobody on YouTube.

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