Following Valve’s controversial determination to ban developer Santa Ragione’s narrative horror sport Horses from Steam, rival storefront GOG – which will likely be promoting the sport when it launches subsequent week – has weighed in, saying it needs “to provide gamers the liberty to decide on what they play, and [give creators] the house to convey their creative work to them.”.
Italian studio Santa Ragione – whose award-winning output consists of Saturnalia and Meditteranea Inferno – introduced Horses again in 2023. It is a three-hour horror journey – mixing monochrome visuals, live-action intermissions, and interactive sequences – that unfolds throughout 14 days on a farm the place bare human “horses” are saved as livestock. It makes for some putting imagery as the sport explores “the burden of familial trauma and puritan values, the dynamics of totalitarian energy, and the ethics of non-public duty”.
Nevertheless, Horses made headlines this week when its launch date announcement was accompanied by the information it will be accessible on all PC platforms except Steam. It is a lengthy story that Santa Ragione co-founder Pietro Righi Riva mentioned with Eurogamer in additional element when the information broke, however the quick model is Valve made the choice to ban Horses from its platform in 2023, saying it will not “distribute content material that seems, in [its] judgement, to depict sexual conduct involving a minor.”
Santa Ragione had plenty of issues to say about that. Firstly that it was a mischaracterisation of a short mid-game scene – “not sexual in any manner” – the place a customer to the farm lets his younger daughter journey one of many horses, and secondly that the scene was altered, ageing the daughter right into a 20-something lady, whereas the sport was nonetheless in inventive flux. Its perception is Horses would have handed Steam’s approval course of with out situation if Valve – which has refused to re-examine the ultimate construct – had not requested an early model, and the very fact no different storefront has taken umbrage with the sport helps that.
And now, Steam rival GOG has weighed in on social media, saying it is “proud to provide Horses a house”, and including it “[believes] gamers ought to have the ability to select the experiences that talk to them.” In a seperate remark offered to Eurogamer, the storefront elaborated additional, saying GOG will likely be distributing Horses as a result of its platform “is the place on which we need to give gamers the liberty to decide on what they play, and creators can have the house to convey their creative work to them.”
“At GOG, we purpose to offer builders with a welcoming house for his or her initiatives and to make it easy for gamers to entry the video games they care about,” it continued. “We’re pleased to provide Horses a house… giving gamers one other solution to expertise the sport – and to help the Santa Ragione studio on this tough time, we have determined to launch pre-orders on Horses in the present day.”
Horses launches by way of GOG, the Epic Video games Retailer, the Humble Retailer, and Itch.io on 2nd December. It prices €4.99/$4.99.
