Epic bans indie sport Horses from its storefront 24 hours earlier than launch

Indie studio Santa Ragione is dealing with extra strife after claiming its newest sport has been blocked on one other main storefront. The developer beforehand stated it was at risk of closure after Valve banned Horses from Steam, noting that it might be very troublesome to recoup its funding with out entry to the world’s largest PC gaming storefront. The state of affairs turned extra dire this week after Epic Video games blocked Horses as nicely.

Santa Ragione stated Epic notified the studio of its resolution simply 24 hours earlier than the sport was launched on Tuesday, regardless of approving Horses on the market on the Epic Video games Retailer weeks earlier. “As soon as once more, no particular indication of problematic content material within the sport was given, solely broad and demonstrably incorrect claims that it violated their content material tips,” the studio wrote in an FAQ. “Our attraction was denied twelve hours later with out additional clarification.”

In accordance with an e-mail from Epic that Santa Ragione shared, the corporate banned Horses from its retailer on account of violations of its inappropriate content material and hateful or abusive content material insurance policies, the latter of which “prohibits content material that promotes abuse and animal abuse.” It additionally decided that Horses had obtained an adults-only ranking, and such video games aren’t allowed on its retailer. Engadget has contacted Epic for remark.

Horses is a horror sport a few school scholar who works on a farm throughout the summer season. The farm’s so-called horses are literally nude human adults who put on equine masks and dwell as horses.

Santa Ragione stated that, in its attraction to Epic, it identified that Horses is a “robust critique of violence and abuse basically” and that it doesn’t promote any type of abuse. It claimed that there are not any “specific or frequent depictions of sexual conduct,” as nudity is pixelated and though the three-hour sport has 4 “sexual sequences,” these are transient and censored, with two primarily happening off-camera. Nevertheless, Santa Ragione stated Epic caught by its resolution to dam the sport from its retailer.

With Horses being banned from Steam and the Epic Video games Retailer, that leaves GOG (the place it’s at the moment on the high of the bestsellers chart) and Itch.io as the one storefronts on which the $5 sport is obtainable as Santa Ragione tries to recoup the $100,000 or so it spent on improvement. Horses was imagined to have been accessible by way of the Humble Retailer as nicely however, as Gamespot notes, the URL for the listing now redirects to the shop’s homepage.