Valve effectively blocked the game Horses made by Santa Ragione back in 2023, saying aspects of the game’s Steam store page raised “concerns” and that, following a review of an early build, it would not allow the title to be released on the platform.

“We reviewed the game back in 2023. At that time, the developer indicated with their release date in Steamworks that they planned to release a few months later,” a Valve spokesperson said. “Based on content in the store page, we told the developer we would need to review the build itself.”

Santa Ragione is now preparing to release Horses on December 2, 2025, via the Epic Games Store, GOG, Itch.io, and Humble Store at a price of $4.99. However, the game will not be available on Steam after Valve determined it contains “themes, imagery, or descriptions” the platform will not distribute.

The studio has budgeted to support Horses for six months after launch, but says it may be forced to shut down afterward unless the game recoups its development costs an outcome it considers unlikely without access to what it estimates is more than 75 percent of the PC market.

“Steam’s refusal removed our primary route to PC players, with no appeal process and no clear way to comply, as detailed in our FAQ,” the studio said in a press release.

“Steam has also stopped issuing developer keys to indies that fail to meet undisclosed sales thresholds, limiting third-party sales and retroactively impacting our catalogue. In a monopoly, decisions like these can rapidly determine whether a small studio survives.”

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Santa Ragione describes Horses as an “enigmatic first-person horror adventure that blurs the line between reality and the darkest corners of your imagination.” The surreal game allows players to ride naked humans on a farm while completing disturbing and unsettling tasks.

“Horses uses grotesque, subversive imagery to explore power, faith, and violence,” the studio explained. “We reject subjective standards of obscenity and believe this kind of moralising censorship echoes a darker past, where vague ideas of ‘decency’ were used to silence artists. Games are an artistic medium, and lawful works for adults should remain accessible.”

The developer noted that Horses was rejected by Steam before payment processors reportedly began tightening restrictions around adult content on game storefronts. According to the studio, Valve denied the title in 2023 while it was still unfinished, without offering specific details about why it had been barred.

“After review, we will not be able to ship your game Horses on Steam,” reads the automated message Santa Ragione received from Valve in 2023. “While we aim to ship most titles submitted to us, we found that this title features themes, imagery, or descriptions that we won’t distribute.”

The message added that Steam will not publish content that “appears, in our judgment, to depict sexual conduct involving a minor,” even if that interpretation falls into a “grey area.”

Santa Ragione said Valve did not point to any concrete scenes or elements that could be modified, despite the studio offering to adjust anything deemed unacceptable. It also stressed that Horses has not been altered at the request of other platforms. “The version releasing soon is the game as we intended,” the studio said.

The team speculates the ban may have been triggered by an unfinished scene submitted during the initial review. In that sequence, a man visits the farm with his young daughter, who asks to ride one of the “horses”—humans wearing horse masks. The studio emphasises this is only conjecture, as Valve never clarified which content it found objectionable.

“We were treated without the professional respect the situation required”

For Santa Ragione, the lack of transparency is the central issue.

The studio invested roughly $100,000 into Horses, about half of which came from personal donations by friends. Without Steam, it believes recouping that cost is unrealistic, leaving the studio facing a serious risk of closure.

Reflecting on the situation, Santa Ragione co-founder Pietro Righi Riva told Game Developer the past two years have been “profoundly disheartening.”

“We did everything we could to reverse the decision, offered to comply with any request, and still felt we were treated without the professional respect the situation demanded,” he said.

Riva added that he feels “tricked and betrayed” by Valve, noting that Steam has taken a substantial share of the studio’s revenue over the 14 years it has operated on the platform.

“I assumed that history would afford us a level of professional courtesy and predictability,” he said. “It’s hard not to see malice when the rules are deliberately vague, while the company insists its curation is automatic and ‘democratic’ because humans aren’t involved.”

He said the team has endured “immense stress” while repeatedly attempting to appeal the ban, and worries that speaking out could invite further scrutiny.

“I think it’s important to have this conversation, but it also puts the team at risk—both for criticizing Valve and because the allegations are so broad and severe. It’s kept me awake at night,” he said.

Despite everything, Riva said the team feels some relief at having finished and released the game.

“If we had canceled it after the ban, that would have been far worse. Everyone is sad this is likely our final game as Santa Ragione, but at least it will be a strange and, hopefully, memorable one.”

The studio argues that Steam’s opaque policies amount to de facto censorship that shapes what developers feel safe creating.

“We respect players enough to present the game as intended and let adults choose what to play,” Santa Ragione said. “Lawful works should not be made inaccessible by a monopolistic storefront’s unclear decisions.”

It also revealed that one scene was later adjusted independently of Steam’s feedback: a character originally depicted as a young girl was changed to a woman in her twenties, both to avoid problematic juxtaposition and because the dialogue worked better thematically. The studio maintains the original scene was non-sexual.

Ultimately, Santa Ragione believes Steam deliberately keeps its policies vague to preserve flexibility.

“That may be tolerable in a competitive market,” the studio said, “but Steam is a de facto monopoly. Arbitrary and unpredictable decisions can endanger studios. We also believe the accusation used here was intentionally broad and difficult to challenge publicly.”