The game company seems to have thought that they could drum up sales on other platforms by making this a media thing. Based on the additional platforms pulling out, it might have backfired. They could have let their little horse-porn game quietly release on every platform but Steam and made enough to get by. Instead they drew attention to themselves.
this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2025
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Did it not work tho? This was my first itch.io purchase ever
Not arguing the effectiveness of drumming up drama to sell your game, but they have also lost the accessibility of three major platforms in doing so.
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Based solely off the trailer I can see how a big American storefront would err on the side of caution here. There is very little to gain from carrying a game decidedly built with controversy in mind, but a lot to loose.
With the publicity around it and sales still possible through alternative stores maybe things will turn out alright for the developer in the end. "Banned" media is always in demand, after all.
Unless it unexpectedly sells gangbusters, the dev says they're likely to shut down as not having the massive steam audience to sell to won't net them enough to continue. And people are stupidly loyal to valve for some reason.
That's because Valve is privately owned and this has largely resisted the enshittification that largely plagues public companies and private equity frims.
Except people give them passes for shit that they don't extend to other companies. The blind loyalty is stupid
Such as? Perhaps if you specified on what they're getting a pass for people could be a little less blind.
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It very well could be true, but the dev also seemed full of shit in the first interview I saw, pretending that he had no clue why it was banned.
I mean, he released the communication he's received. It's not super clear. And the things he thinks it was isn't even in the current version of the game
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They'd be as well carrying on. Its in a pretty unique position as being a game that people are talking about before its even finished, which is pretty uncommon for most titles, and can be "the game they tried to ban" which did wonders for Manhunt, GTA and Postal.
Valve is pretty upfront about being a business first and foremost. Their customers are loyal because they consistently provide high value at reasonable prices, even though they are in a dominating position in the market. They've taken unpopular decisions in the past, but never any that seriously alienated a meaningful chunk of their customer base.
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Is it actually any good? I don't really play horror, but it mostly just looks odd in the trailer.
Making the matter even more frustrating is the fact that Horses is apparently quite good—or at least, it accomplishes what it sets out to do. The content is decidedly uncomfortable but reviews and reactions on social media are largely positive
Horses is not low-effort, throwaway trash, but rather a game that genuinely seeks to provoke consideration and conversations.
From the article.
It’s horrific, not horror.
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Sounds like the gaming equivalent of the play "Equus".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equus_(play)
I can see why some would shy away from it, but banning it is the sort of thing that will keep gaming from becoming a unique art form. 😟
It already is a unique art form. This is not defined by the commercial availability, and this game wouldn’t be the first art piece that understands controversy as part of its essence.
It was a child doing pony play, riding a naked adult man-horse. The dev claimed it was not sexual.
I don't think gaming needs CSAM to be a "unique art form", but you do you.
Y'all need to read what CSAM is. Questionable or objectionable art isn't CSAM in the same sense that drawing a murder isn't murder and drawing Noncon isn't rape.
Depiction isn't harm, if it was damn near all literature would be in the same category.
Let's not go down that slippery slope.
Books like Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret – Judy Blume would be considered abuse material on such an asinine slope.
Y’all need to read what CSAM is. Questionable or objectionable art isn’t CSAM in the same sense that drawing a murder isn’t murder and drawing Noncon isn’t rape.
it's literally legally defined as CSAM in most western countries. and I probably wouldn't be arguing otherwise, since it looks like the other dude who did that got all his posts deleted by the mod.
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Read the plot summary of the play Equus linked above.
Like I say, this sounds like the gaming equivalent of Equus, which, when performed, involves a character supposed to be 17 doing exactly that.
The horses on stage are supposed to be "real" horses, but are performed by human actors. The male actor in these scenes is also typically nude.
NGL, it's a HEAVY play to read and even heavier to watch, but it also won the 1975 Tony Award for best play...
I am just gonna pretend like Epic and HB banned it only after see all this PR work they're trying to do to save this god awful looking piece of "art."
And just becsuse the comments here don't seem to know the real root issue: The game originally featured a child protagonist, and that was what Valve was sent to review. They only changed the protag to an adult after the rejection and now they are throwing a hissy fit over their pedo game being banned.
No place for challenging art in video games. Books and movies have been pushing boundaries for millennia, but this new medium is way too effective at affecting people
-Valve, probably
It is available on other, quite popular, stores. GOG and itch.io are household names in PC gaming.
As long as that house exclusively uses Linux.
GOG and Itch sell mostly windows games.
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I guess you wouldn't be wrong to say that sexual abuse of children is challenging and pushes boundaries.
E: see replies.
CSAM has nothing to do with this conversation. Are you lost?
Maybe look up why the game was rejected from Steam in the first place.
If that was true, why would the game removing fictional minors for a distinctly unsexual situation not remedy the rejection? Come on now
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CSAM is literally why the game was banned from Steam.
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