Horses is a 2025 video game developed and published by Santa Ragione Game Studio. The game, created in partnership by Italian designer and filmmaker Andrea Lucco Borlera, who created the concept of the game, is a surrealisticadventure video game in which a young man tends to a farm occupied by enslaved humans dressed as horses. In November 2025, shortly before release of the game, developer Santa Ragione stated that Steam had made a final decision not to distribute the game on the platform, with the view that Valve had not provided transparent reasons for the content ban. The ban prompted commentary about the role of games distribution censorship and the impact on independent games production.
Horses is a first-person narrative horror video game in which interactive gameplay sequences are interspersed with full motion video cutscenes. Players assume the role of a young man who spends his two-week summer break by working on a secluded farm.[1] At the farm, the player is tasked by the farm's owner, named the Farmer, to undertake menial jobs such as watering the crops, feeding the dog, and taking care of the horses. These consist of locating the correct tools and using them in the instructed context.[2] As each day progresses, the tasks become more sinister and disturbing, with the player discovering the farm's horses are enslaved humans wearing a horse mask and collar.
Development and release
Horses was conceived by Andrea Lucco Borlera, a film graduate at the Roma Tre University,[3] developing the game's concept and directing the live action sequences.[4] Borlera stated the design and aesthetic of the game was inspired by surrealist filmmakers Luis Buñuel and Jan Švankmajer, and the work of filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos.[2][3][5] Borlera also cited childhood experiences of fear of horses and their handlers on his grandfather's farm as a source for the game's direction.[2] The game was developed by studio Santa Ragione, an Italian game studio formed in 2010 by Pietro Righi Riva and Nicolò Tedeschi, who had created titles including Wheels of Aurelia and Mediterranea Inferno.[6] After finding difficulty in pitching the game to studios, Borlera stated the partnership arose from a chance meeting with Riva.[3] Development cost the studio approximately $100,000 in costs, half of which was raised from friends.[7]
Horses was announced in June 2023 as part of the IGNSummer of Gaming event, alongside the release of a trailer.[8] The game experienced delays from its intended 2024 release date due to then-undisclosed reasons,[9] with developers announcing the final release date and trailer for the game in 2025.
Steam distribution ban
In November 2025, immediately prior to the game's release date, Santa Ragione announced that they were unable to release Horses on Steam as Valve Corporation had made a final decision to not permit the game on the platform.[6][10] The studio stated that Steam provided an automated response following an initial review that the game would not be distributed as it, in Valve's words, "appears, in our judgment, to depict sexual conduct involving a minor".[7] The studio characterized the judgment as "vague and unfounded" and that Steam did not provide further feedback on scenes or elements that triggered the ban. They speculated that the decision stemmed from reviewers seeing an incomplete scene depicting a child, being carried on the shoulders of a naked adult woman, which they stated was "not sexual in any way". This character was later changed to an adult during development. As a result of the ban, Santa Ragione stated that whilst the game would receive post-launch support, the studio may need to wind down its operations, as the inability to secure an external partnership with a publisher due to the ban led to an "unsustainable financial situation".[7][9]
Following announcement, Valve shared a statement with media outlets stating that the platform had pre-emptively banned Horses based on a review of the game's store page and content in 2023. Following a later request by the studio to appeal this decision, Valve stated they undertook an internal content review, "extensively" discussed the game, and communicated to the developer a final decision that the game could not be shipped, consistent with their rules and guidelines.[11][12]
The announcement prompted commentary on the role of game distribution platforms in approving or rejecting works with adult content. Citing recent discourse relating to Steam's content moderation of games required by payment processors as advocated by activism group Collective Shout, Nathan Grayson of Aftermath stated that these decisions reflected censorship and would "reverberate through the industry", with the platform overstepping its role in "deciding what does and does not constitute commercially viable art".[13] Olivia Richman of The Escapist stated the dispute "shines a light on the struggles of indie game publishers" and the "fight for freedom of expression", but considered it unlikely the game would be commercially successful and considered it unclear whether the platform was "censoring important issues" or the ban was a "black and white case of showing inappropriate images...which goes against Steam's guidelines".[14] Distributor GOG issued a statement that it supported distributing the game on its platform, stating that it was "proud" to host it as "players should be able to choose the experiences that speak to them".[15] After Santa Ragione disclosed Valve's ban of the game, they received a notification from Epic that Horses had also been banned from the Epic Games Store, 24 hours before it was due to launch.[16][17]
Reception
Pre-release demo coverage for Horses praised the game's provocative and experimental concept. Edge praised the game's experimental qualities for keeping the game fresh and enhancing the "disquieting mood", highlighting the game's aesthetic choices such as its use of close-up shots, which "magnifies deformities and accentuates the grotesqueness of the human faces, turning a simple mealtime conversation into a paranoid fever dream".[2] Describing the demo as "[defying] easy categorisation", Ignas Vieversys of The Guardian acknowledged the game was "unpredictable and jagged" and a "difficult pitch", but found the game's vision "promising".[3] Edwin Evans-Thirwell of Rock Paper Shotgun considered the premise "repellent and compelling", commending the game's visuals cutscenes as occupying the uncanny valley and showcasing the "specific varieties of ugliness only videogames are capable of".[18] Robert Purchese of Eurogamer stated that the game was "decidedly quieter" than Santa Ragione's previous works, noting its "minimal dialogue" and "eerily rudimentary construction".[5]IGN stated that the demo was "not for the faint of heart".[10]
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