I only learned about Horses, a unique-looking horror title featuring naked men wearing horse masks, when it made the news for getting a Steam ban. It's just been banned from the Epic Store, too, which had me finding out whether the real reason was spooky or just plain dumb.
So, the reasoning behind the bans on both storefronts was mature content... of the non-specified type. Maybe because it features things too scary or sexy to even write about? Epic didn't go beyond stating that Horses violates their policies for "Inappropriate" and "Hateful or Abusive Content." Well, Horses shows butt-naked, forcefully anthropomorphized horses, among other possibly sexy or just straight-up terrifying elements, but it's not a pornographic game, nor does it feature any sort of pro-hate stance. It's just puzzling that such a game would get banned like this, but it gets even sillier.
It's especially strange for Steam, a storefront with way too many sex games. At first, the ban seems more reasonable when coming from Epic. This is the company mostly known for Fortnite, a game whose cute aesthetics almost make you forget it's about 100 kids shooting each other until death.
Still, Horses earned an IARC certificate of PEGI 18 and ESRB M, nothing above that, and both Epic and Steam are still overruling it. So, Epic considers Horses "mature content", and that the company explains that it just doesn't sell that kind of stuff, unless, well, let's just use their official statement because there's no way I could make it funnier if I wanted:
"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)."
Santa Ragione, the indie developer studio behind Horses, is aware of how ridiculous this all sounds, so they have a regularly updated explainer of the entire debacle that you can read.
The team only learned of the ban roughly 24 hours before the game's launch. I'm yet to play Horses, but, if most accounts from respected video game outlets that have tried it are to be believed, it's a damn good game, and far from something that should be forbidden. Santa Ragione has since appealed Epic's verdict, but the appeal has been denied.
You can now get Horses on GOG and Itch.io.
The post Why did this mysterious horror game get banned from Steam and now the Epic Games Store? appeared first on Destructoid.
