According to a report from Dexerto, an indie horror game titled HORSES has been rejected by Steam, and Italian developer Santa Ragione fears that this decision could spell the end of their studio.
In a lengthy Q&A published on their official website, the studio explained that the game was first submitted to Steam in June 2023. At the time, they were told that HORSES would not be approved for release on Valve’s platform—without any explanation.

Developer Pietro Righi Riva stated that “no specific details were provided”.
“For two years, we’ve been asking for clarification and guidance on how to comply,” he said. “But they only directed us to Steam’s general guidelines, and our review and appeal requests were repeatedly rejected.”

“In our case, they simply stated that they cannot legally distribute HORSES, but they did not explain why.”

Meanwhile, other distribution platforms, such as GOG and the Humble Store, reportedly raised no objections. The Epic Games Store requested that the developers change the featured image on the store page to avoid showing horror content—something the team promptly complied with.

The development team invested a six-figure budget into HORSES, and given the current situation, they say the game would need to sell “tens of thousands of copies” outside of Steam just to break even.

The above content is compiled by ModeZone, a fashion and entertainment magazine.