The indie studio was on the verge of closure due to Steam's refusal to publish their psychological horror

The Italian studio Santa Ragione was on the verge of closure due to the fact that Steam refused to sell its horror game Horses. Representatives of the site have not been able to give reasons for their decision for a year. Developer Pietro Righi Riva told IGN about this.

Horses is a psychological horror film about a young man who came to work on a farm, but discovered that horses are actually naked masked men chained in the yard.

The developers first introduced the game on Steam in 2023.

At this stage, Valve rejected the game's placement. According to the developer, the representatives of the site did not specify what exactly did not fit the rule. Accordingly, it was not possible to cut out objectionable elements and re-place the project.

Riva suggests that the reason for the blockage was the scene that was in the raw version of the game. There, a man and his little daughter come to the farm. A girl leads a horse (actually a naked man) by a leash. Realizing that the scene might look ambiguous, the developers soon replaced the girl with a woman over 20 years old.

Riva shared that representatives of other platforms have GOG, Itch.io , Humble Store, Epic — no questions asked. Still, Steam remains the most important and profitable resource.

The developer emphasized that the inability to release the game on Steam almost certainly means that Santa Ragione is doomed. The studio had experienced financial difficulties before: it invested $50,000 to sign a contract with one of the team members who worked on the project.