Horses Horror Game Banned by Steam, Finds New Home on GOG

Disturbing Horror Game Banned By Steam Finds New Home

The white Steam logo over blurred cards of games in the background.

By Ben Brosofsky Published 17 minutes ago Ben Brosofsky has been writing for Screen Rant since 2022 and editing since 2024. He graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor's in Cinema & Media Arts. Writing serves as a much-needed distraction from tackling a backlog of Steam games that will never be surmounted. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

It's been a big year for horses in video games. First, there was the enormous popularity of the horse-girl game Uma Musume: Pretty Derby, and now there's the kerfuffle surrounding Horses, a horror game making its debut off-Steam after the popular storefront barred its release. Luckily for Horses, another major PC storefront has publicly avowed its support for the title.

On X, GOG.COM claimed that the storefront is "proud to give HORSES a home," sharing a link to pre-order the game ahead of its December 2 launch. GOG has long been a major home for DRM-free PC games, but the company behind the site, CD Projekt, has become even more well-known for The Witcher games and Cyberpunk 2077. Horses retails for $4.99 on GOG and the Epic Games Store.

Horses Was Banned By Steam

No Chance To Appeal

Horses is an intentionally provocative game, depicting an unnerving setting where naked humans are ridden like horses. Steam's issue with the title came from an earlier build where a child rode on the shoulders of a naked adult woman, which understandably fell afoul of the platform's ban on "sexual content involving a minor."

Horses developer Santa Ragione has insisted that the scene was never intended to be sexual, but acknowledges that Valve had a right to object to it. The problem is that, after removing the scene, Santa Ragione had no option to resubmit the game for consideration. Consequently, a studio with a long history of games on Steam is having to make do without PC's biggest storefront, jeopardizing its financial prospects.

GOG Has Picked It Up

Horses Has A Welcoming Home

With a comfortable home on GOG, however, things might not be that bad for Horses. The controversy surrounding its ban has generated a lot of discussion surrounding the game, which may be even better marketing than a spot on Steam would be. I'm familiar with most of Santa Ragione's previous games, but they were never gunning for blockbuster status, with each title generally racking up a few hundred reviews on Steam.

Even if Santa Ragione does manage to recoup its investments, there's still a larger question of censorship on Steam and where the platform draws the line on artistic expression. Hard lines on sexual content involving children are definitely necessary, but Horses seems like a fairly different situation from a trashy visual novel, especially after the scene in question was cut.

Steam has issued a statement standing by its decision, so it doesn't look like anything will change on that front. With GOG expressing the opposite sentiment, the battle lines have been drawn.

Horses

Like Horror First-Person Systems PC-1

Released December 2, 2025 ESRB M For Mature 17+ // Blood, Crude Humor, Language, Nudity, Sexual Content, VIolence Developer(s) Andrea Lucco Borlera Publisher(s) Santa Ragione

4 Images

Image by Pam K Ferdinand / Game Rant

Image via Santa Ragione

Image via Santa Ragione

Image via Santa RagioneClose

Genre(s) Horror, First-Person Powered by Expand Collapse

Gaming
Steam
PC Games

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