The Horror Game Steam and Epic Won't Touch: Inside How to Play Horses
Banned on Steam and Epic, the controversial horror indie Horses isn’t dead — it’s still up for grabs elsewhere, and here’s where to buy it and back its creator.
Another day, another platform headache. The indie horror game Horses has turned into a small lightning rod: blocked on Steam and Epic, still standing elsewhere, and raising the usual questions about who decides what is too much for a storefront.
Where you can actually buy Horses right now
- GOG
- Itch.io
- The game’s official site also lists current purchase options
What went down with Steam
According to developer Santa Ragione, Horses was never allowed onto Steam, even after they say they followed the platform’s content guidelines. The team says they were denied multiple times and were told this was not related to the recent adult-content censorship drama you have probably seen kicking around. In their view, Steam’s curation group made the call and stuck to it.
Epic okayed it... until it didn’t
Epic Games Store initially approved the release build weeks ahead of launch, per the devs, then pulled the game right before release. The studio says their appeal was rejected.
So why does this feel messy?
Horses looks calm on the surface, but it is a horror story with sharp edges underneath. Even so, the line-drawing here is fuzzy at best:
- Doki Doki Literature Club (2018) is still available on storefronts despite themes that are famously intense for some players.
- Hatred is still up on Steam, and that game is literally about playing a mass-murdering antagonist and mowing down innocents for "fun."
Meanwhile, Horses, which the devs say does not include physical intimacy, gets the boot. Steam has long been great for sales and even hardware, but its mature-content policy can feel opaque: plenty of NSFW titles are allowed, while others run into a wall with little clarity about why.
The bigger pattern
This is not a one-off. Tormentor was recently delayed over Steam’s approval process, and the vibe right now is that mature-content rules may have tightened in the wake of broader internet censorship flare-ups. Whether that is a temporary overcorrection or the new normal is the question.
If you want to support the studio’s vision and judge the game for yourself, GOG and Itch have you covered for now. Do you think Horses should be blocked on some stores while other grittier titles glide through? I have thoughts, but I want to hear yours.