So wait, why did Epic ban the game?

I will admit I pre-ordered the game on GOG because GOG advertised it as being "Banned from Steam!" and I assumed VISA and Mastercard were fucking around again.... Well that's five dollars for a game I don't wanna play because I don't want to wind up on a list

Fuck censorship.

All devs should release their games on their own websites and get paid in Monero.

Just bought it out of principle on GOG. It's $3, you should too

content that appears, in our judgment, to depict sexual conduct involving a minor

I'm assuming they don't mean a suggestive camera pan, but actually something problematic on screen, in which case, I totally support the ban. Devs were given the opportunity to change it, and they said no. Ban away imho. The fact that this is considered controversial is pretty disturbing to me.

Steam was the first major storefront to refuse to carry Horses, a first-person psychological horror adventure about "the burden of familial trauma and puritan values, the dynamics of totalitarian power, and the ethics of personal responsibility" set on a ranch where nude human beings in horse masks are treated as livestock.

Publisher Santa Ragione said in November that Valve declined to carry Horses because it contained "content that appears, in our judgment, to depict sexual conduct involving a minor." Santa Ragione disputed that characterization, but an appeal was rejected and the ban stands.

Seems like it's treading a very fine line...

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.

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.

Looks like it has triggered someone's "we can't be seen backing down!" reflex at Valve

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

Wait, I thought this game was a depiction of what we subject horses to, using a horror lens to drive home the point? I've never heard of something less sexy?

Assuming the content is merely controversial and not objectionable (i.e. exploitative), it seems there may be room for an art-centric game store front.

Ironically, I'm betting it's nowhere near as exploitative as the monetization practices of virtually every AAA release these days.