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The Humble Store is the third online storefront to ban the surreal indie horror game Horses, following decisions from Valve and Epic Games. Of the three, Steam is the only one to release a public statement about the ban, writing, "our internal content review team discussed [the ban] extensively and communicated to the developer our final decision that we were not going to ship the game on Steam."
Just a day before the game was due to launch, Epic Games Store sent a message to Santa Ragione, the award-winning indie studio behind Mediterranea Inferno and now Horses, saying, "Yesterday, the Epic Games Store decided at the last minute not to distribute the game, after having previously approved a release build."
Humble appears to be the third storefront to ban Horses, as the game page has disappeared, and the indexed version that previously appeared in search results now redirects to the main page. Humble has not released a statement about this at the time of writing, and Santa Ragione has not confirmed the game's removal on social media.
Despite these bans, two platforms still support the game: itch.io and GOG, with the latter actively promoting it. A statement from GOG reads, "We're proud to give HORSES a home on GOG, giving players another way to enjoy the game. We've always believed that players should be able to choose the experiences that speak to them."
After the initial Steam ban, Santa Ragione's co-founder, Pietro Righi Riva, made a statement that the game had cost the team $100,000 to develop, and the studio would likely be forced to close if the game failed to sell. However, GOG's decision to support Horses seems to be working for both companies, as the surreal short horror story is currently the best-selling game on the platform.
Horses costs just $4.99 and you can grab it on GOG or itch.io before space lasers wipe it off the face of the Earth.
