Steam was the first major storefront to refuse to carry Horses, a first-person psychological horror adventure about "the burden of familial trauma and puritan values, the dynamics of totalitarian power, and the ethics of personal responsibility" set on a ranch where nude human beings in horse masks are treated as livestock.

Publisher Santa Ragione said in November that Valve declined to carry Horses because it contained "content that appears, in our judgment, to depict sexual conduct involving a minor." Santa Ragione disputed that characterization, but an appeal was rejected and the ban stands.

Seems like it's treading a very fine line...

Based solely off the trailer I can see how a big American storefront would err on the side of caution here. There is very little to gain from carrying a game decidedly built with controversy in mind, but a lot to loose.

With the publicity around it and sales still possible through alternative stores maybe things will turn out alright for the developer in the end. "Banned" media is always in demand, after all.

Wait, I thought this game was a depiction of what we subject horses to, using a horror lens to drive home the point? I've never heard of something less sexy?

Assuming the content is merely controversial and not objectionable (i.e. exploitative), it seems there may be room for an art-centric game store front.

Ironically, I'm betting it's nowhere near as exploitative as the monetization practices of virtually every AAA release these days.

content that appears, in our judgment, to depict sexual conduct involving a minor

I'm assuming they don't mean a suggestive camera pan, but actually something problematic on screen, in which case, I totally support the ban. Devs were given the opportunity to change it, and they said no. Ban away imho. The fact that this is considered controversial is pretty disturbing to me.

Is it actually any good? I don't really play horror, but it mostly just looks odd in the trailer.

Sounds like the gaming equivalent of the play "Equus".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equus_(play)

I can see why some would shy away from it, but banning it is the sort of thing that will keep gaming from becoming a unique art form. 😟

The game company seems to have thought that they could drum up sales on other platforms by making this a media thing. Based on the additional platforms pulling out, it might have backfired. They could have let their little horse-porn game quietly release on every platform but Steam and made enough to get by. Instead they drew attention to themselves.

No place for challenging art in video games. Books and movies have been pushing boundaries for millennia, but this new medium is way too effective at affecting people

-Valve, probably

So wait, why did Epic ban the game?

I will admit I pre-ordered the game on GOG because GOG advertised it as being "Banned from Steam!" and I assumed VISA and Mastercard were fucking around again.... Well that's five dollars for a game I don't wanna play because I don't want to wind up on a list

I am just gonna pretend like Epic and HB banned it only after see all this PR work they're trying to do to save this god awful looking piece of "art."

And just becsuse the comments here don't seem to know the real root issue: The game originally featured a child protagonist, and that was what Valve was sent to review. They only changed the protag to an adult after the rejection and now they are throwing a hissy fit over their pedo game being banned.