Earlier today, Humble followed in the hoofprints of Steam and Epic by yanking bafflingly controversial art game Horses from its digital shelves – in this case after the storefront had already made it available for purchase. Now, mere hours later, Humble has relisted Horses.
IGN’s Rebekah Valentine broke the news, which was immediately met with a collective “Huh.” Aftermath reached out to Humble for more information but did not receive a reply as of this publishing.
Speaking to Aftermath, Santa Ragione co-founder and director Pietro Righi Riva said that Humble temporarily pulled Horses to reevaluate it, but found no reason to set that decision in stone.
"In short, their team saw the press coverage and temporarily delisted Horses to reevaluate it," Riva said. "After a full review they determined that while the content is heavy, nothing in the game warrants removal from their store."
"We are grateful to Humble for having reconsidered and for taking the time to check out the game, although I wish they had informed us that this process was ongoing!" he added. "We are happy that it has been resolved with the game being back on the store, and we wish Steam and Epic would also reconsider their stance based on the actual game contents."
Horses, which contains censored nudity and adult themes like sexual assault and slavery, remains banned on Steam and Epic. This despite the fact that it is far tamer than many widely distributed films and on level even with some popular games. Santa Ragione, the award-winning indie studio behind Horses, has categorized this sudden lack of access to PC gaming’s largest consumer bases as an existential threat and railed against what it describes as “preemptive censorship.”
Meanwhile, let’s have a quick look at what else Steam is stocking these days (warning: NSFW). Phew, no double standards here.
Horses can be purchased on Itch, GOG, and now, once again, Humble.
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Nicole Carpenter
