The Epic Games Store is the latest online retailer to drop support for the provocative indie game Horses.
IN statement In a post on social media, developer Santa Ragione confirmed that the Epic Games Store decided “at the last minute not to distribute the game” despite having “previously approved the release build.”
Last week, Italian developer Santa Ragione said in an interview with the publication GamesIndustry.biz that it could be facing closure after Valve said it would not be putting its upcoming horror game Horses on Steam.. The studio says the decision means it won't be able to reach the largest PC audience and is therefore unlikely to be able to recoup the project's development costs.
In a statement for GamesIndustry.biz Valve said at the time: “We tested the game back in 2023. At the time, the developer listed a release date on Steamworks that they planned to release several months later. Based on the content on the store page, we told the developer that we would need to check out the build itself. Sometimes this happens if the content on the store page raises concerns that the game itself may not fall within our guidelines.
“After our team completed the build and reviewed the content, we provided the developer with feedback on why we could not release the game on Steam, in accordance with our registration rules and guidelines. “We were soon asked by the developer to reconsider the review, and our internal content review team discussed this in detail and informed the developer of our final decision that we were not going to release the game on Steam.”
Now it looks like the Epic Games Store has followed suit, telling Santa Ragione:
“We are unable to distribute horses on the Epic Games Store because our review found violations of the Epic Games Store content policies, specifically the Inappropriate Content and Inappropriate or Offensive Content policies.” The “Inappropriate Content” policy prohibits content that “contains explicit or frequent depictions of sexual conduct or is not appropriately labeled, rated or age-restricted.” The Hateful or Offensive Content Policy prohibits content that promotes cruelty and cruelty to animals. This content is prohibited by our policies and may not be distributed on the Epic Games Store.
“Also, when we [Epic] by filling out an IARC questionnaire based on the content we reviewed, it was rated “Adults Only” (AO). Products with an AO rating cannot be distributed on the Epic Games Store (the only exception being products that have been assigned an AO rating solely due to the use of blockchain or NFT technology).”
Santa Ragione was then given the option of either changing the game and resubmitting it, or appealing the decision.
Developer said it “immediately appealed its decision through all channels offered” and disputed claims that the game contains explicit or frequent depictions of sexual conduct and “importantly reminded Epic that we completed and completed the IARC as part of the application process more than five weeks prior to release and were NOT rated AO.”
“We have received a PEGI 18 rating and an ESRB M rating, which is currently displayed on the Horses Coming Soon page on the Epic Games Store,” the developer added.
Despite the appeal, EGS said it had reviewed the appeal “and determined that the original decision was properly applied and will remain in force.”
The GOG platform from CD Projekt came out in support of Horses.
