After a viral, news-packed week that saw Steam stand behind its decision to ban the indie horror title from its platform, followed by a statement from GOG, a platform that was willing to host the game, and proudly at that, Horses has officially released into the world.
Yet, despite the game seemingly going viral overnight, it seems that the impact of word-of-mouth and it being in headlines has done very little to help the title from Santa Ragione and Italian filmmaker and game director, Andrea Lucco Borlera, turn a profit.
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In a new interview with The Verge, studio co-founder and Horses producer, Pietro Righi Riva, discussed some of the fallout following the game’s overnight news headlines and subsequent release, namely if any of it helped make the title profitable. In short, no, not really.
“I’m relieved because, with all this attention, I’m probably going to be able to give back most of the money [roughly half of $100,000] that I had to borrow,” the producer said. “But we’re not out of the [woods] yet, no.”
Ahead of its release, in an FAQ dedicated to sharing its side of the story, Santa Ragione noted that $100,000 was inveseted into the game’s development, of which half came from friends. At the time, the studio acknowledged that without a release on Steam, recouping any of that money would be nearly impossible.
Still, given that the game stood to probably make nothing after its ban, especially given how much smaller these storefronts fare compared to Steam, the viralness of its story did help somewhat.
“There is no way the same kind of interest would have happened,” he added.
Even so, a release on Steam is ultimately the most beneficial thing from a financial and crowd standpoint, and the team is still disappointed that things ended the way they did.
“Even with all the publicity, all the reporting, all the reviews, everything else,” he said, “this still does not compare to the kind of audience we would have on Steam.”
That the studio was even able to get some of the money back and pay those people is good to hear, but it is worth wondering just how much more money they could’ve generated had Steam reconsidered its stance. Maybe Horses wouldn’t have gone viral, but given how Steam users have turned inconspicuous titles into overnight successes before, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.
- Brand
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Valve
- Original Release Date
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September 12, 2003
- Original MSRP (USD)
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N/A
- Weight
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N/A
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