Horses, the indie horror title from Santa Ragione, is out now. Yet, if you only shop on the more popular digital storefronts, you probably wouldn’t know.
The title was barred from Steam by Valve mid-development, leaving Santa Ragione unable to access a massive portion of the market and casting the future of the studio in doubt.
It’s a situation that studio co-founder Pietro Righi Riva described as “scary, humiliating, and patronizing” during a recent conversation with Game Developer, and one he claimed should raise alarm bells about the censorship of art on major storefronts.
Then, on December 1 at 5pm CET (roughly 24 hours before launch) Horses was banned from the Epic Games Store.
In an extensive FAQ published online, Santa Ragione said it received an email from Epic Games in which the company explained it was unable to distribute the surreal horror experience because it violates the Epic Game Store Content Guidelines—specifically, the “Inappropriate Content” and Hateful or Abusive Content” policies.
Here is the full email sent to Santa Ragione by Epic Games:
“We are unable to distribute Horses on the Epic Games Store because our review found violations of the Epic Games Store Content Guidelines, specifically the ‘Inappropriate Content’ and ‘Hateful or Abusive Content’ policies. The ‘Inappropriate Content’ policy prohibits content which ‘contains explicit or frequent depictions of sexual behavior or not appropriately labeled, rated, or age-gated.’ The ‘Hateful or Abusive Content’ policy prohibits content that promotes abuse and animal abuse. This content is prohibited by our Guidelines and cannot be distributed on the Epic Games Store. Additionally, when we [Epic] filled out the IARC Questionnaire based on the content that we reviewed, it received an Adult Only (AO) rating. Products with AO ratings cannot be distributed on the Epic Games Store (the only exception is for products in cases where an AO rating was applied solely due to the usage of blockchain or NFT technology). You have some options on how to move forward: 1. You can make updates to your product to ensure compliance and resubmit it for review. 2. If you believe we made a mistake, you also have the ability to appeal this decision. You can appeal by replying to this email or creating a private discussion on our Developer Support site. Select ‘Epic Games Store’ as the topic. 3. You cannot change the title or content to repurpose it for another game. If you choose not to move forward, we’ll refund your submission fee for this product.”
Santa Ragione explained it immediately appealed the decision through the suggested channels.
It said the title does not contain explicit or frequent depictions of sexual behaviour. “All nudity in the game is completely censored via pixelation. 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,” wrote the studio.
Epic and Santa Ragione at odds over IARC rating
Notably, Santa Ragione clarified that Horses does not in any way promote abuse—including animal abuse—and is in its view a “strong critique of violence and abuse in general.”
The studio said it then reminded Epic it had already secured an International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) rating as part of its submission process over five weeks before release. Santa Ragione said Horses received a PEGI 18 and ESRB M rating, as was displayed on its ‘Coming Soon’ page on the Epic Games Store.
It did not, emphasized the studio, receive an AO rating.
“After the appeal, we reached out to our contact at Epic Games to beg them to reconsider this last-minute decision and to stress how Horses builds had been submitted and reviewed by their team for the last two months, with the final achievements-ready build being approved for release 18 days prior to launch,” continues the FAQ published by Santa Ragione.
The studio received the following automated message in response:
“We are writing to provide an update regarding your appeal. We conducted an extensive review before our initial notice, and found your content is prohibited by our Content Guidelines and cannot be distributed on the Epic Games Store. We reviewed your appeal and found the original decision was appropriately applied and will remain in place.”
Santa Ragione said it has once again been hung out to dry by a major platform holder who has banned their product without a clear explanation that would have allowed them to address specific issues.
“Once again, no specific indication of problematic content in the game was given. Even if Epic’s initial ban communication specified that we could ‘make updates to [our] product to ensure compliance,’ the email did not include any information on what would need to be changed, and it would have been impossible to make significant changes one day from launch anyway,” continued the studio.
When approached for comment by Game Developer, Epic Games communications director Jake Jones said the company made it clear what can and cannot be distributed on its platform.
“We set clear guidelines for the content that can be distributed on the Epic Games Store and found violations of those guidelines during our extensive review,” said Jones.
Horses is available now on Itch.io, GOG, and the Humble Store.
