Originally, the avant-garde horror game Horses was supposed to release in the summer of 2023 on the Steam store. But two years later, although its December 2nd launch day is imminent, developers Santa Ragione have had to go through a lengthy process of bargaining in order to bring the game to market. Part of this delay is, according to them, due to Steam allegedly “pre-emptively” censoring their product and making it difficult for the developers to negotiate. In an FAQ on Horses’ website, the developers claim that:

…we asked for clarifications and a path to compliance, but we were directed to Steam’s general guidelines and our requests for review and appeal were denied over and over.  

Horses still won’t be available on Steam, so players will have to look to Epic, Itch.io, Humble Bundle, or GOG if they want to play it. GOG recently confirmed that the game would be available to purchase on their store, but just today they posted a tweet launching pre-orders for the game and seemingly remarking on the controversy of its Steam ban:

We’re proud to give HORSES a home on GOG, giving players another way to enjoy the game. We’ve always believed that players should be able to choose the experiences that speak to them.

To support the Santa Ragione studio in this difficult time, we’ve decided to launch pre-orders… pic.twitter.com/dWMAlFIEvs

— GOG.COM (@GOGcom) November 28, 2025

This statement from GOG about players’ choice reflects a lot of the grievances Santa Ragione have touched on in the FAQ page mentioned above. According to them, Steam has not been clear with them about specifically what prevents their game from being their platform. In an FAQ on Horses’ website, the developers share text from an official review from the company that alleges the presence of inappropriate content concerning minors in the game, although Santa Ragione push back on this:

We believe this explanation is deliberately vague and unfounded. There are no scenes or characters in the game that fall within that grey area, and we were refused any detail, review, or guidance on what to change or remove.

The developers speculate the ban could be in regard to an “unfinished scene” they presented during the game’s production that seemingly did involve a minor, but not in any sort of sexual context, and they later changed the age of that character to avoid further controversy. Horses is certainly a game oriented towards adults, as Santa Ragione harps on, but does not look to be a game that contains mature content simply for shock value. The game has a three-ish hour runtime, and its premise follows a surrealist plot that involves running a farm with “horses” that appear to be naked adults. In any part of the entertainment industry, it’s difficult to market a product that is low-budget, experimental and perhaps unappealing to general audiences, but especially with independent video games, not having access to Steam can be make or break, as the developers touch on. Horses’ lack of the platform’s support is a hefty hit for sure, but at least it seems like they have a few other major distributors in their corner with GOG and Epic Games.