Late final yr, indie horror recreation Horses was banned by Epic Games Retailer simply forward of its debut. As a result of Horses had already been banned by Steam in 2023, this gave studio developer Santa Ragione a drastically diminished probability to interrupt even. Santa Ragione has since referred to as out Epic over the cancellation, and now Epic has responded to the previous’s claims.
Whereas talking with Game File, Epic vice chairman Steve Allison stated, “We love [Horses’] studio,” however reiterated that the sport’s grownup content material warranted its elimination. Santa Ragione responded on social media, and wrote, “Epic made provably incorrect statements in regards to the recreation’s content material, refused to supply particulars supporting their claims, and has not shared their claimed AO IARC certificates, which usually features a hyperlink for the developer to enchantment … They don’t ‘love that studio,’ they’ve successfully ghosted us.”
Brian Sharon, Epic Games’ senior communications supervisor, subsequently informed IGN that Horses was flagged for violating the Epic Games Retailer’s coverage pointers about inappropriate, hateful, or abusive content material.
“We did a secondary verify by filling out the scores questionnaire for the sport ourselves and the content material bought an Adults Solely (AO) rating–which we don’t permit on the Retailer,” wrote Sharon. “As a result of this wasn’t an official submission, we would not have a certificates to share with the crew. We did give the builders context across the insurance policies they violated. After they appealed, we reviewed the content material once more, and allow them to know the choice was appropriately utilized and can stay in place.”
In December, Santa Ragione disclosed that Horses had offered 18,000 copies in two weeks regardless of being shut out of the 2 largest PC recreation distributors. That gave the developer sufficient cash to repay its money owed, however not sufficient to start manufacturing of a brand new recreation.