An unsettling indie game about horses keeps getting banned from stores

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨t3rmit3@beehaw.org⁩ to ⁨gaming@beehaw.org⁩

https://www.theverge.com/news/837278/horses-banned-steam-epic-games-store

Horses, a first-person narrative horror game, was banned from the Epic Games Store just hours before it was set to launch on December 2nd. Then, a day after launch, the Humble store (temporarily) banned it as well. The decision shocked the developers at Santa Ragione, makers of the critically respected Saturnalia, as these storefronts were the homes they’d found for their game two years before it was preemptively banned from Steam.

Valve and Epic say Horses violates their sexual content policies. Humble hasn’t yet said why it banned the game.

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justdaveisfine@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I keep seeing the “well its got nudity what did they expect” take and saw this article that talks about the meta-narrative and theme:

https://noescapevg.com/all-that-fucking-bullshit-abouthorses-and-for-what/

It being weird and uncomfortable is the point - Though obviously its not meant to be a game for everyone.

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- VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I love the tone of this article. Fuckin tell em.
  
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- hzl@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  It’s not that it has nudity. It’s that it had a child riding around on a fully naked adult in a horse mask.
  
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snooggums@piefed.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Banned is the wrong word.

Steam chose not to distribute it because it the understood an early build to include children in sexual situations. Further builds did not dissuade them from the original decision.

Epic, who originally was going to distribute based on the developer filling out some form chose not to after filling it out themselves and finding it had a higher rating (adult only) at the last minute.

The developer speculated it was about a specific scene, but based on both steam and epic there are fundamental concerns about the content that led to no distributing on their platforms, which is not banning, that do not align with the story the developers are presenting. It is not likely to be about one scene that was in an earlier build that was the issue for them.

The important thing is that the game is not BANNED in any way whatsoever. It is available on fewer distribution platforms, which reduces visibility, but is not banning any more than exclusive deals or limited releases are banning on other platforms.

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- Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  No, banned is the right word colloquially. The media is not eligible to be distributed in the monopolistic or anti-competitive web service run by Valve. It wasn't banned by a government, but it was indeed banned.
  
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- SGforce@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  
  ban 1 of 3 verb ˈban banned; banning; bans Synonyms of ban
  
  transitive verb 1 : to prohibit especially by legal means ban discrimination Is smoking banned in all public buildings? also : to prohibit the use, performance, or distribution of ban a book ban a pesticide 2 : bar entry 2 sense 3c banned from the U.N.>
  
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  - Wolf314159@startrek.website ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    So, by that definition and the definition everyone else is using, the game has been banned from various marketplaces for games. Context matters. In this context ban is used EXACTLY the same way we talk about banned books at the library.
    
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Krauerking@lemy.lol ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
They made an art piece that tows the line in the minefield so hard that it is causing explosions when people try to follow along…

Yeah ok, so sounds like they accomplished their goal in the art sense and just won’t get the wide audience and monetary rewards formaking an art piece that hurt people.

I see nothing wrong here.

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- AngryMob@lemmy.one ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Theyre getting more attention from all these articles every day than they ever had before for sure. Theyre loving this. None of their games have had much success, reviews low, player counts near 0… steamdb.info/developer/Santa+Ragione/
  
  I dont care what obscure indie awards they won, 99% of people commenting, complaining, etc have never heard of the studio or their games, even within the indie space, the numbers show that.
  
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  - Krauerking@lemy.lol ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Yeah, honestly this is a fantastic ad campaign for them and they are in fact getting rewarded for towing that line by getting the conversation on them.
    
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karashta@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
My sleepy brain was expecting something about Umamusume or however you spell that horse girl game

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- JackbyDev@programming.dev ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Honse
  
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Sanctus@anarchist.nexus ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Terrible timing. There was just that payment processor panic with the porn games. Now you wanna have a kid talk to a naked man with a horse mask. I get its not sexual but read the room. It was clearly a bad idea even if it was meant to convey some profound message. Honestly I dont think that would have ever worked out. Its just whack.

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- Feyd@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Submitting to moral panic bullshit doesn’t placate them. It only emboldens them.
  
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  - t3rmit3@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Valve has hundreds if not thousands of highly and expressly pornographic games on its platform, so I don’t think this can be chalked up to the Collective Shout folks’ spectre somehow looming over Valve. As another commenter pointed out, according to the devs’ own timeline, Valve’s rejection happened prior to the recent successful Collective Should payment-processor targeting.
    
    I suspect that EGS and Humble probably halted sale at the last minute due to the added press naming them as distributors prior to launch, often in articles that included Valve’s response asserting that it contained questionable content related to minors, and them going, “hey what? Hold on a sec, we don’t know anything about that.”
    
    If you were about to sell a bunch of cars, and a major dealership announced they wouldn’t sell them because their trunks were all full of cocaine, a couple days before launch, you’d probably delay your launch to double-check as well.
    
    Unfortunately, the developers’ own initial press statements where they sort of feigned innocence (after they had already changed the scene in question, meaning they at least had some idea that was likely the issue) probably didn’t help their credibility in other platforms’ eyes, as far as being business partners goes.
    
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  - Sanctus@anarchist.nexus ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Okay, cool. Do you think having a little girl talk to a naked horseman is something that would help sell the game? Or make it onto a marketplace anywhere? Thats why it was removed and they already tried to placate by makkng the girl an adult and that didnt work obviously. So whats your point here? Leave that content in the game? That doesnt solve the developers problem.
    
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- carotte@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  iirc the game was refused by steam before the payment processor thing, and even then, you don’t scrap your whole project because of one moral panic. not only is it bowing down to pressure, it’s also just a terrible idea financially
  
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  - Sanctus@anarchist.nexus ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    I mean are you saying they should have left the game as is? Really dont understand your argument here. It seems this is more just bad taste rather than a moral panic.
    
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thingsiplay@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Oh, so its not just Steam banning the game. So shitting on Steam is not fair then: eurogamer.net/its-extremely-frustrating-and-also-…

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- Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  “Other people did thing so you can’t blame Steam for doing thing” I absolutely can though
  
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- Rose@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Steam is the one with monopoly power, and the Horses developer has said that publishes didn’t event wasn’t to publish the game if it cannot be on Steam. This argument isn’t applicable to Epic, let alone Humble, which ended up reinstating the game within the day.
  
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  - Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Someone needs to bring a trust-busting suit against Valve.
    
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astutemural@midwest.social ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

make intentionally shocking art game gets banned surprisedpikachu.jpg

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