Facing the possibility of shutting down as a studio following Valve’s decision to ban indie horror title Horses from being sold on its Steam platform, GOG, the digital distribution platform owned by CD Projekt Red dedicated to DRM-free games and digital preservation, has affirmed that the controversial title has a place on its site when it releases Dec. 2
In a statement shared to outlets and posted on social media, GOG affirmed that it was “proud” to host Horses, noting that players “should be able to choose the experiences that speak to them.”
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 on HORSES today – grab yours and celebrate their creativity!
Beyond GOG, Horses will also be available on the Epic Games Store, Itch.io and the Humble Store, just not on Steam after Valve communicated a “final decision” to the Santa Ragione studio.
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Horses Is An Extremely Controversial Horror Game, Prompting Some Changes
As TheGamer reported earlier in the week, Valve was sent an early build of the game back in 2023, and it deemed the game was seemingly too inappropriate to allow it to release on its popular PC platform, likely due to a now edited sequence featuring “sexual conduct involving a minor.”
Originally in that build from 2023, the in-game sequence was constructed as:
“The daughter wants to ride one of the horses (in the game the “horses” are humans wearing a horse mask) and gets to pick which one,” the developers explain. “What followed was an interactive dialogue sequence where the player is leading, by a lead as if they were a horse, a naked adult woman with a young girl on her shoulders.
“The scene is not sexual in any way, but it is possible that the juxtaposition is what triggered the flag,” they continue. “We have since changed the character in the scene to be a twenty-something woman, both to avoid the juxtaposition and more importantly because the dialogue delivered in that scene, which deals with the societal structure in the world of HORSES, works much better when delivered by an older character.”
For its part, Valve asserted that the ban was not “out of nowhere” or for “no reason” as many were posturing. In a statement shared with outlets, Valve said it “discussed” the matter extensively with Santa Ragione.
“After our team played through the build and reviewed the content, we gave the developer feedback about why we couldn’t ship the game on Steam, consistent with our onboarding rules and guidelines,” the statement read in part. “A short while later, the developer asked us to reconsider the review, and our internal content review team discussed that extensively and communicated to the developer our final decision that we were not going to ship the game on Steam.”
With the game set for release on December 2, it’s only a matter of time before everyone can see for themselves if Steam was justified in its decision, even after that specific scene was edited.
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