Santa Ragione Co-Founder Discusses Horses, Steam, and Possible Studio Closure

The video game industry has seen numerous studio closures this year, including The Outsiders and Fantastic Pixel Castle. Santa Ragione, the studio behind critically acclaimed indie games like Saturnalia and Mediterranea Inferno, may be the next to join them. The announcement comes after a dozen failed attempts to secure financing for their upcoming first-person horror game, Horses. The game was indefinitely banned on Steam in June 2023, just days before its premiere on IGN's Summer of Gaming event. Pietro Righi Riva, co-founder and director of Santa Ragione, spoke with GamesIndustry.biz about the situation. Riva explained that Valve went silent after the studio submitted Horses' Steam page, and later requested a complete build of the game to review. The main issue with this request was that Horses was not even halfway finished at the time. Santa Ragione scrambled to create a complete version, but this did not resolve the issue. Valve ultimately decided not to ship Horses on Steam, citing concerns about content featuring 'sexual conduct involving a minor.' Riva suspects that a scene involving an underage girl and the player character may have triggered the ban. The girl was later replaced with a twenty-something woman in the final version of the game. The studio head expressed frustration and disappointment with Valve's decision, stating that it has made it impossible to find funding to complete the game. Riva also noted that several publishers had expressed interest in publishing Horses before the Steam ban, but ultimately dropped the project due to the ban. Andrea Lucco Borlera, the director of Horses, shared his personal take on the situation, stating that the team was aware the game would be received in a divisive way, but not to the extent that it would be banned. Borlera believes that Valve may have been unfamiliar with a game like Horses and used the content concerns as an excuse to avoid potential trouble. The Steam ban has had a significant impact on the future of Santa Ragione, with Riva stating that the studio's closure is likely if the game does not perform well. Riva and Borlera have both expressed their disappointment and frustration with the situation, with Riva noting that the studio has always tried to push the boundaries of what video games can be. In an update, Valve responded to the situation, stating that they reviewed the game in 2023 and gave the developer feedback on why they could not ship the game on Steam. The company noted that their internal content review team discussed the matter extensively and communicated their final decision to the developer.