According to Engadget, indie studio Santa Ragione says it’s at risk of shutting down after Valve banned its game Horses from Steam. The first-person horror game features naked human adults wearing horse masks and was scheduled for release on December 2 across multiple platforms. Valve’s content review team blocked the game back in 2023 after reviewing a playable build, citing “content that appears, in our judgment, to depict sexual conduct involving a minor.” The studio invested around $100,000 in development and claims the Steam ban made it impossible to find external publishers or partners. Santa Ragione now faces an “unsustainable financial situation” unless the game somehow recoups its development costs through sales on alternative storefronts.
Steam’s opaque censorship
Here’s the thing about Steam’s content moderation: it’s notoriously inconsistent. Valve told the developer they couldn’t ship the game “consistent with our onboarding rules and guidelines,” but didn’t provide detailed reasons beyond that vague “sexual conduct involving a minor” line. The studio spent two years trying to appeal and get clarification, but kept getting pointed back to the same general guidelines. And honestly, when you look at what does make it onto Steam these days, this decision seems arbitrary at best. How many genuinely problematic games slip through while artistic but challenging work gets blocked?
The real financial impact
Losing Steam access isn’t just inconvenient—it’s potentially fatal for small studios. Steam dominates PC gaming so completely that being banned effectively cuts off 70-80% of your potential revenue. Santa Ragione had already sunk $50,000 of its own money into Horses, hoping to cover costs with sales from their previous game Saturnalia. When that underperformed and a planned bundle deal fell apart, the Steam rejection became the final nail. They had to scramble for funding from friends just to finish development. Now the studio co-founder admits closure is “inevitable” unless “a miracle happens.” That’s how much power Valve wields over independent developers’ survival.
Artistic freedom vs platform rules
Santa Ragione makes a compelling argument in their FAQ: “Games are an artistic medium and lawful works for adults should remain accessible.” They’re positioning this as censorship of challenging art rather than enforcement of community standards. But Valve has every right to curate its store—the question is whether their process is transparent and consistent. The studio claims they respect players enough to “let adults choose what to play,” which raises an interesting point. Should platforms act as moral guardians, or should they trust adults to make their own decisions about content? There’s no easy answer, but the consequences for getting it wrong can destroy creative businesses.
indie-devs”>What’s next for indie devs?
The game will still launch on Epic Games Store, GOG, Itch.io, and the Humble Store on December 2. But let’s be real—none of these platforms come close to Steam’s market share. This case highlights the dangerous position indie developers are in when one company controls so much of the distribution channel. Studios making unconventional or challenging work need to seriously consider whether putting all their eggs in the Steam basket is worth the risk. Maybe it’s time for more developers to build direct sales channels or explore alternative platforms from day one. Because when your entire business can be destroyed by one opaque decision from Valve, that’s not a sustainable model for artistic innovation in gaming.
