According to Wccftech, Italian indie studio Santa Ragione is facing potential closure after Valve permanently banned their upcoming horror game Horses from Steam. The studio, co-founded by Pietro Righi Riva and responsible for acclaimed titles like Saturnalia and Mediterranea Inferno, submitted the game within appropriate timeframes but received an automated rejection citing “sexual conduct involving a minor.” Valve requested a full build review when the game was only half-finished, and Santa Ragione believes an incomplete scene from day six triggered the ban. The studio has since changed the scene to feature an adult woman in her twenties rather than a young girl, but the permanent ban means Horses will launch on Epic Games Store, GOG, Humble Store, and Itch.io on December 2, 2025 without Steam distribution.
Valve’s Opaque Process
Here’s the thing that really stings about this situation: Valve went completely silent after issuing the ban. They didn’t specify which scenes violated their policies or offer any opportunity for appeal. Even worse? They demanded to review a full build when the game was only halfway done, forcing the developers to scramble and submit incomplete content. Basically, Santa Ragione got judged on work-in-progress material that wasn’t representative of the final product. And now they’re stuck with a permanent ban that can’t be appealed, even though they’ve already made the changes that would likely address Valve’s concerns. It’s the kind of automated, unaccountable process that makes smaller developers absolutely terrified of platform gatekeepers.
Indie Survival Crisis
This isn’t just about one game getting rejected – it’s about whether niche artistic studios can survive in an increasingly consolidated digital marketplace. Riva admits that without Steam‘s massive audience, they likely can’t recoup development costs. All revenue from Horses will go to paying back the author and investors, leaving nothing for future projects. So we’re looking at a studio that created critically acclaimed, unique games like Saturnalia potentially shutting down because of one automated decision. When you consider that Steam dominates PC gaming distribution, this becomes a question of whether artistic, boundary-pushing games have any economic future. Can any indie studio afford to make something interesting if Steam’s algorithm might randomly nuke their entire business model?
What Horses Actually Is
For context, Horses appears to be exactly the kind of weird, artistic horror that Santa Ragione specializes in – not some exploitative trash. The controversial scene involved “a naked adult woman with a young girl on her shoulders” during a farm visit, which the developers insist wasn’t sexual but rather about societal structures in the game’s world. They’ve since changed it specifically to avoid any problematic juxtapositions. But here’s the real question: when did platforms become so risk-averse that they’d rather ban something permanently than work with developers to fix potential issues? Especially when dealing with respected studios with proven track records of creating thoughtful, artistic games.
Broader Implications
This situation should worry anyone who cares about diverse gaming experiences. When platforms like Steam can effectively kill studios through opaque, unappealable decisions, we’re heading toward a homogenized gaming landscape. Smaller developers already operate on razor-thin margins, and losing access to Steam’s audience can be fatal. Riva’s resigned acceptance – saying if this is their last game, he wants fans “not to be sad, because it can stand on its own” – speaks volumes about the precarious position of artistic game development today. The fact that a studio’s survival hinges on a single platform’s automated moderation system should concern us all.
